19 / 39
Page 77
allied
academies
February 28-March 01, 2019 | Paris, France
Palliative Care, Obstetrics and Gynecology
Stroke and Clinical Trials
International Conference on
Joint Event on
International Conference on
&
Journal of Research and Reports in Gynecology and Obstetrics | Volume: 3
The critical role of integrating spiritual care in palliative goals of care
Elizabeth M Teklinski
Munson Home Care Traverse City, USA
A
s part of a broader aim toward greater patient-centered
care, an increasing number of medical leaders are urging
health care systems and providers to offer more meaningful
attention to patients’ spiritual concerns. According to the
National Consensus Project for Quality Palliative Care,
palliativemedicine promotes comprehensive care in a holistic
(mind, body, and spirit) context. Further, the goal of palliative
care is to prevent and relieve suffering while supporting the
best possible quality of life for patients and their families,
regardless of the stage of their disease or their desire for
additional therapies. Dame Cicely Saunders expanded the
definition of suffering, or total pain, to include physical,
psychological, social, and spiritual dimensions. Palliative care
has thus emerged as an area of medicine where matters of
spirituality have an increasingly important role in whole-
patient care. The demonstrated benefits of addressing
spiritual and existential questions to end-of-life discussions
and decision-making include increased scores on patient
satisfaction surveys, higher rates of hospice enrollment, and
significant reports of better quality of life. There also appears
to be a strong association between integrating spiritual care
services and significantly lower rates of hospital deaths,
decreased medical costs, fewer aggressive high-cost, life-
sustaining medical interventions at the end of life, and a
patient is much more likely to recommend the hospital
system. The speaker will attempt to make the case that
clinicians and providers should consider patients’ spiritual
beliefs when a life-challenging prognosis is rendered, and a
subsequent Goals of Care plan is discussed. The opportunity
for integrating spiritual care from the very first palliative
medicine Goals of Care conversation is significant in that it
might better address a truer sense of holistic palliative care.
e:
eteklinski@att.netRes Rep Gynaecol Obstet, Volume 3
DOI: 10.4066/2591-7366-C1-003