Learning modules
Activity 6: Understanding quality of life
Palliative care is a specialised area of health care that's been developed to respond to the type of needs described in the previous section.
Palliative care was developed in the 1960s after it was recognised that the care provided to people with life-limiting illnesses in institutions (e.g. hospitals) needed to be improved.
There are a number of palliative care definitions. The World Health Organization (WHO) has the most well-known definition. It describes palliative care as:
'... an approach that improves quality of life of patients and their families facing problems associated with life-threatening illness, through the prevention of suffering by means of early identification and impeccable assessment and treatment of pain and other problems, physical, psychological and spiritual.' [1]
Key points in the WHO approach
- The palliative approach comes early in the course of an illness, not just as end-of-life care.
- There is an emphasis on promoting holistic care to ensure physical, psychological, social and spiritual well-being.
- The family and significant others are included in the care process.
- There is an emphasis on impeccable assessment, early identification of problems and implementation of appropriate treatments.
- Disease modifying treatments, such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy, may have a role.
- Palliative care can be provided in any setting.
- There is an emphasis on a team approach to care.
Improving the quality of life of patients and their families is a central goal of palliative care. Defining what quality of life means for each person is not a straight forward process. This is because quality of life is:
- multidimensional: many different aspects of a person's life (physical, emotional, social, and spiritual) can be important to his or her quality of life
- subjective: defined and experienced by each person in unique ways
- dynamic: quality of life can change over time.
REFERENCES
1. World Health Organization (WHO). (1998). WHO Definition of Palliative Care. Retrieved January 25, 2010, from http://www.who.int/cancer/palliative/definition/en/
Video
William's story
Thinking points
Thinking points
Activity 6: Understanding quality of life
- How do you define quality of life?
- How does your definition compare with those of other students or your family and friends?
- How might a person's definition of quality of life be similar or different as their illness progresses?
- Why is it important for health care professionals to understand a person's perception of quality of life and how it changes over time?
- Assessment and early identification of problems is a feature of palliative care.
a) Within the context of your own discipline's scope of practice, give a specific example of a potential problem that you could identify early.
b) Describe the process you would use to support early identification of the problem. - The World Health Organization's (WHO) definition of palliative care states that palliative care 'is applicable early in the course of illness, in conjunction with other therapies that are intended to prolong life, such as chemotherapy or radiation therapy, and includes those investigations needed to better understand and manage distressing clinical complications'.
a) Discuss what is meant by 'early in the course of a life-limiting illness'.
b) How does the WHO palliative care definition fit with your understanding of, and experience with, the concept of palliative care?
