Child Palliative Care in Australia (Essay Sample)

Child Palliative Care in Australia Evans Juma Kitui [Institution Name] Child Palliative Care in Australia Palliative care can be defined in several ways. Definitions will differ depending on the state or territory. The World Health Organization defines palliative care as an approach aimed at improving the quality of life of both the patients with life limiting conditions and their families. Australia has adopted the World Health Organization’s definition as its nationally accepted definition. Child palliative care is aimed at the children living with chronic, fatal conditions and their immediate families. Child palliative care is important because it offers physical, social, spiritual and emotional support to both the sick children and their parents / guardians. Since treatment is no longer aimed at curing the disease, child palliative cure ensures an improved quality of life in the affected child. Physical support is a must and it is offered by the health care professionals. It involves reduction of disease symptoms and management of pain (Huijer, 2012). Pain is the commonest symptom in children suffering from progressive diseases and it should be addressed promptly to minimize patient discomfort. Spiritual support helps patients and families to deal with the emotional challenges that they may encounter during the care process. Spiritual support can be offered in form of prayer groups, visits by a chaplain or baptisms. Physicians can also pray for patients as part of palliative care (Best, Olver & Butow, 2014). Spiritual support assures the parents that their child is at peace and he/she will be going to a better place once the disease runs its course. Emotional support is offered by family members and friends. This helps in eliminating feelings of fear, anxiety and depression that may be seen in children undergoing palliative care. In Australia, child palliative care is offered in neonatal and pediatric units, general practices and community based care centers. The services offered range from inpatient services, hospices and special community based services. The methods used to administer palliative care differ across the states and territories of Australia. This is because the different states budget differently for publicly funded services. According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (2014), an effective child palliative care system is usually multidisciplinary involving healthcare professionals, volunteers, parents and other workers such as chaplains and caregivers. Parents will be involved as decision makers for the child. Palliative care should not be focused on the sick child alone, the parents will also need emotional and spiritual support. Most families in Australia prefer that their child undergo palliative care in a hospital setting. Here, children are housed in hospices or special palliative care wards within hospitals. Factors contributing to this preference include: availability of qualified physicians and emergency care services at the hospitals and inability to operate complex medical equipment at home. In addition, some children palliative care services in Australia can only be offered in a hospital-based setting. Nurses are responsible for ensuring ethical, safe and compassionate palliative care in the hospitals. They also act as regulators to ensure that the nursing care offered to the child is adequate during the trajectory of the disease. Nursing care can either be holistic or person-centered. Holistic nursing care is focused on treating the whole body without paying attention to the patient’s needs while person-centered nursing care focuses on putting a patient’s needs before the priorities identified by physicians. The person-centered approach is preferred in child palliative care because it primarily focuses on the child’s needs and desires while ensuring mutual trust between the nurse and the child (Nelson et al., 2000). The children are housed in individual wards with the medical equipment they need. This allows for privacy and dignity. Nurses frequently check on the children to ensure they are physically comfortable and to administer therapies as per the child’s prescription. The children are given freedom of choice as long as choices relate to medical needs. When this nursing care approach involves family and friends, it is termed family-centered nursing care. For those Australian parents wishing to care for their child at home, community based palliative care teams are available to provide support. The teams are headed by community nurses who are responsible for nursing support, offering medical advice and performing home-based care to the child. These nurses only carryout routine visits and do not spend the whole time with the child. Therefore, parents and guardians are usually trained on how to handle medical equipment, provide direct care and minimize symptoms. Although this home-based nursing care may be cost efficient, it is not as effective as hospital-based nursing care where children are constantly under professional watch. In addition, the lack of adequate experience by community nurses may hinder effective pa...