End-of-Life Decisions

End-of-Life Decisions

The discussion about end-of-life and the decisions that need to be made prior to getting to that point is not an easy one but does require careful attention and consideration. In this article you will find information explaining laws, policies, and choices you can make surrounding end- of-life health care decisions.

Role of the Nurse

The nurse is responsible for very many factors of a patient’s health. One of them includes end-of-life care and involves assisting with making difficult decisions.

Nurses are the part of the health care team who are at the bedside during the entire patient’s process. They are the ones that spend whole shifts with patients and their families, build strong relationships, and are competent to assess the needs of the patients and families. Due to this, along with being able to know when patients are no longer responding to treatment, nurses are in a position to be able to assist with end-of-life decision making (Adams, Bailey, Anderson & Docherty, 2011).

Nurses and physicians do not want to give up too soon, remove all hope for families of acutely ill patients, or making the wrong prognoses. This is the reason why there is so much fear for health care professionals when it comes to initiating these discussions. The nurse is also the advocate for the patient in end-of-life (EOL) care. This type of nursing includes assisting patients and families throughout the dying process, being professionally culturally sensitive, and pain and symptom management for the patient (Hebert, Moore & Rooney, 2011). Other domains of EOL nursing practice include:

The helping role

Teaching or coaching function

Diagnostic client-monitoring functions

Effective management of rapidly changing situations