Book Description

This user-friendly guide offers you practical, direct answers for the difficult and little-taught questions that arise when providing care for the dying.
Features:
* Perspectives of patients, families, and other health care professionals, as well as physicians
* Solution-oriented coverage on preparing patients, managing symptoms, and handling legal/ethical issues near the end of life


Book Info
Vitas Healthcare Corporation, Miami, FL. Clinician's guide to care for the dying. Offers the perspectives of families, patients, and other clinicians on the issue. Explains how to assess when quality of life is near its end, and suggests how to deal with the psychosocial aspects of this phase of life. Softcover. DNLM: Terminal Care--psychology.


From the Back Cover

This user-friendly guide offers you practical, direct answers for the difficult and little-taught questions that arise when providing care for the dying.
Features:
* Perspectives of patients, families, and other health care professionals, as well as physicians
* Solution-oriented coverage on preparing patients, managing symptoms, and handling legal/ethical issues near the end of life
* Guidance on timing: when is end-of-life care needed?
* Breaking bad news: how to inform the patient
* Useful, current, guidelines on the treatment of pain, dyspnea, skin and mucus membrane problems, gastrointestinal conditions, and other common symptoms near the end of life
* In-depth discussion of end-of-life controversies, including advance directives and resuscitation, nutritional support and parenteral hydration, and physician-assisted suicide
* How to assess quality of life near its end
* Practical help with end-of-life care for special groups, such as HIV and pediatric patients
* Guidance on bereavement, depression, and other psychosocial and spiritual issues at the end of life
* Suggestions on benefiting from interdisciplinary teamwork
* What every clinician needs to know about the last days of the actively dying


About the Author
Vitas Healthcare Corp, Patient & Family Services, Miami, Florida

FROM THE PUBLISHER

This user-friendly guide offers you practical, direct answers for the difficult and little-taught questions that arise when providing care for the dying.
Features:
* Perspectives of patients, families, and other health care professionals, as well as physicians
* Solution-oriented coverage on preparing patients, managing symptoms, and handling legal/ethical issues near the end of life

SYNOPSIS

This user-friendly guide offers you practical, direct answers for the difficult and little-taught questions that arise when providing care for the dying.
Features:
* Perspectives of patients, families, and other health care professionals, as well as physicians
* Solution-oriented coverage on preparing patients, managing symptoms, and handling legal/ethical issues near the end of life
* Guidance on timing: when is end-of-life care needed?
* Breaking bad news: how to inform the patient
* Useful, current, guidelines on the treatment of pain, dyspnea, skin and mucus membrane problems, gastrointestinal conditions, and other common symptoms near the end of life
* In-depth discussion of end-of-life controversies, including advance directives and resuscitation, nutritional support and parenteral hydration, and physician-assisted suicide
* How to assess quality of life near its end
* Practical help with end-of-life care for special groups, such as HIV and pediatric patients
* Guidance on bereavement, depression, and other psychosocial and spiritual issues at the end of life
* Suggestions on benefiting from interdisciplinary teamwork
* What every clinician needs to know about the last days of the actively dying

FROM THE CRITICS

Doody Review Services

Reviewer: Lisa Stepp, PhD, RN, APN, AOCN, CRNH (Private Practice)Description: End-of-life care continues to be a very challenging area of medical care. Authors continue to explore and report on the evolution of caring for individuals and their loved ones during this difficult time. This book continues an emerging tradition of disseminating information to clinicians regarding end-of-life care. Purpose: This book has been specifically designed to help clinicians overcome their own feelings of distress and provide quality care during difficult times. Although certain symptomatology is common for hospice and palliaitve care patients, each situation requires its own form of individualized intervention. The authors' attention to detail provides a framework in which the clinician can design and implement this individualized care. Audience: Due to the tone, writing style, and vocabulary of this book, the most appropriate audience is clinicians involved in and those preparing to practice in the hospice and palliative care arena. The authors and editors are well respected in the field of end-of-life care. Features: The book is divided into three main areas, preparing for the transfer of the patient to end-of-life care, common symptomatology, and ethical dilemmas in end-of-life care. The section on physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia is of particular interest. The authors approach this sensitive topic in a very compassionate, straightforward manner. Assessment: To date, there have been numerous articles, journals, and books produced to address the issues that patients, caregivers, and clinicians face at the end of life. The overlapping of information can be seen however in most cases as unavoidable. This book is well written and accurately reflects the state of end-of-life care in America.

RATING

3 Stars from Doody

ACCREDITATION