Question

Discuss all these questions raising your own opinion and provide examples from globally to support your ideas:

1. How do the goals of care change when the patient’s condition is recognized as terminal?
2. How can patients be helped to maintain control over the end of their lives?
3. How should doctors respond to requests from relatives to keep information from the patient?
4. What factors should be considered when deciding whether to withhold or withdraw life-prolonging treatment?
5. What steps should health professionals take to support patients in the last days of life?

Answer 1

Answers:

1. When the patient is in the stage of terminal, the healthcare providers must not limit the goals to end of life care but more on how the patient wants to live. It is better that their primary goals are not medical but are more personal. Various things have to be decided like where they want to be & how their lives can be planned for the remaining time they have. Most people would focus on completing things, mending relationships, attending family events, spending time on get together, life enjoying activities, connectedness, legacy, balancing quality with length of life. Hence important decisions need to be made considering & giving weight age to personal aspects.
2. Patients can be helped to maintain control over the end of their lives by giving them the freedom to make final decisions or decisions of their choice. The dying person would feel happy that their choices have been honored. It is also necessary to speak to them in normal voice, telling them that these things are quite common & natural, taking them to their favorite places, playing them soothing music etc.
3. Things happen very commonly when it comes to medical management. However when there is medical intervention that is not medically indicated in the attending physician’s view, things become more complicated. Ethical issues include respect for patient autonomy and social justice as well as nonmaleficence. Furthermore, interpersonal and professional relationships may be tested in this situation. Addressing the colleague’s concerns with empathy and respect, without compromising one’s own medical judgment, is critical in resolving these kinds of conflicts. Hence it is the doctor’s duty to consider all the facts before agreeing to the requests of the family members.
4. There are various factors that must be considered when making decision about withholding or withdrawing a life prolonging treatment. The decision should be made on the basis of what is right for the patient, the quality of life that the patient would get after completion of the treatment & whether the proposed measures would restore the patient to a proper way of living. These factors would help the doctors however it is the most difficult part that is faced by the doctors to take a responsible decision that would benefit everyone.
5. Care to be taken by the healthcare professionals to help the patients in their last days of life.

End of life care is support for people who are in the last months or years of their life.

End of life care should help you to live as well as possible until you die and to die with dignity. The people providing your care should ask you about your wishes and preferences, and take these into account as they work with you to plan your care. They should also support your family, carers or other people who are important to you.

You have the right to express your wishes about where you would like to receive care and where you want to die. You can receive end of life care at home, or in care homes, hospices or hospitals, depending on your needs and preference.

People who are approaching the end of life are entitled to high-quality care, wherever they're being cared for.