Palliative care refers to specialized medical care that focuses on providing relief from physical symptoms and improving the quality of life of patients and caregivers. Palliative care can be provided to patients with any medical condition at any stage of illness to relieve symptoms. It can be a patient’s primary treatment (which is often the case with end-of-life care), or it can be provided in combination with standard medical treatments. Palliative care team members work alongside a patient’s medical team and can include professionals from multiple disciplines, including doctors, nurses, social workers, and chaplains.
To prepare for this discussion:
Think about the circumstances, timing, payment, and other features related to palliative care.
1. Write a descriiption of perceptions of palliative care from the perspective of a:
Patient
Caregiver
Social worker
2. Then, explain the roles of social workers in providing palliative care.
3. Compare and contrast the fundamental differences between palliative care and hospice care.
4. Explain medical conditions where you might consider palliative care over hospice care for a patient. Justify your position. Use examples to illustrate your case.
Please use Headings and support your responses with specific references to the readings and current literature using appropriate APA format and style.
READINGS:
Sanders, S., & Swails, P. (2011). A quest for meaning: Hospice social workers and patients with end-stage dementia. Social Work, 56(2), 129–140.
Waldrop, D. P., & Meeker, M. A. (2012). Hospice decision making: Diagnosis makes a difference. Gerontologist, 52(5), 686–697.
ONLINE
Beder, J. (2006). Hospital social work: The interface of medicine and caring. New York, NY: Routledge.
Chapter 5, “The Hospice Social Worker” (pp. 45–55)
McCoyd, J. L. M., & Kerson, T. S., (Eds.). (2016). Social work in health settings: Practice in context (4th ed.) New York, NY: Routledge.
Chapter 20, “Geriatric Social Work in a Community Hospital: High-Tough, Low-Tech Work in a High-Tech, Low-Touch Environment” (pp. 249-259)
Gehlert, S., & Browne, T. (Eds.). (2019). Handbook of health social work (3rd ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Chapter 22, “Pain Management and Palliative Care” (pp. 525-562)
American Cancer Society. (2013). Hospice care. Retrieved from
ONLINE
Bailey, G. (2013). NASW standards for social work practice in palliative and end of life care. Retrieved from
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Caring Connections. (n.d.). Palliative care questions and answers. Retrieved from ONLINE
Bosma, H., Johnston, M., Cadell, S., Wainwright, W., Abernethy, N., Feron, A., … Nelson, F. (2010). Creating social work competencies for practice in hospice palliative care. Palliative Medicine, 24(1), 79–87.
Cadell, S., Johnston, M., Bosma, H., & Wainright, W. (2010). An overview of contemporary social work practice in palliative care. Progress in Palliative Care, 18(4), 205–211. ONLINE
Ghoshal, A., Salins, N., Damani, A., Deodhar, J. & Muckaden, M. (2016). Specialist pediatric palliative care referral practices in pediatric oncology: A large 5-year retrospective audit. Indian Journal of Palliative Care, 22(3), 266-273. ONLINE
O’Connor, M., & Fisher, C. (2011). Exploring the dynamics of interdisciplinary palliative care teams in providing psychosocial care: “Everybody thinks that everybody can do it and they can’t.” Journal of Palliative Medicine, 14(2), 191–196.
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