FOCUS ON PALLIATIVE CARE
WITH YOU TO
THE END
OF YOUR DAYS
How you spend your days is, after all how you spend your life, wrote American author Annie Dillard. Yet how we spend our final days is not always how we’d choose.
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pecialist palliative care nurse Phil Green believes the care we receive at the end of our lives is crucial not only for a dignified and peaceful death, but for those left behind. “Choosing how and where they want to die is important to people with a terminal diagnosis. When promises aren’t kept it can also have a huge knock on effect for those left.” Phil is part of the palliative care team that supports families who have been told their loved one is on their final journey. Their lives have often been preoccupied with hospitals and medical interventions aimed at making them better. Then suddenly they’re faced with the unthinkable. It can be tough. He and his colleagues can become a lifeline for families and colleagues as they guide patients on a journey that can require skilled psychological support, as well as pain and symptom control. Phil’s passion for quality in palliative care came as a student more than two decades ago and was strengthened during his time as
a district nurse, as he realised the importance of looking after the whole person, not just their medical needs. His desire to know the person and their family is genuine. “I want to find out about them so we can have proper chats about things they enjoy; their football team, work or hobbies. “People are very different, they have their own beliefs. It’s important to me that I get the dynamic right from the start. I can then ask what they’d like to achieve so I can help them towards their personal ‘pot of gold’. It could be something small, like getting out into the garden, or to manage the pain control or symptoms. “It could be how and where they want to end their life; if that’s where they’re at we’ll have the discussion, but it’s also about how they want to live the life they have.” CONTINUED ON PAGE 14.
Specialist palliative care nurse Phil Green.
Choosing how and where they want to die is important to people with a terminal diagnosis. 13
