Cancer Pain Management And The Role Of Social Work

Ava DuVernay’s documentary, 13th, is a powerful analysis of the 13th Amendment included in the United States Constitution. Released October 7th, 2016, 13th depicts African Americans, even after the abolishment of slavery, as legally exploited through the 13th amendment. The goal of the documentary seems to strongly portray to its viewers the manipulation of politics at the expense of Blacks, yet again. 13th effectively demonstrates the struggles African Americans face in the arms of the criminal justice system in a powerful and emotion-provoking manner.

This week’s assigned readings focus on the importance of inter-professional teamwork and collaboration within the healthcare environment. Porter-O Grady describes in the readings that the complex nature of our healthcare system and the complex needs of patients call for a multifaceted approach to patient care (2013). This is greatly because current healthcare practices often necessitate for patients to obtain care from various care settings and from various specialties, making it nearly impossible for one discipline to effectively meet all of the patient’s needs (Porter-O Grady,2013). Interprofessional collaboration (IPC) supports a multifaceted approach to care and is defined by Kara et al. (2015) as the process through which different discplines

Within the dementia care environment, it is my experience that it is often unclear to nursing staff as to appropriate assessment and management of pain for clients in the palliative stage of their illness.

Hall and Waver ( 2001) defines Interprofessional as a group of professionals from different disciplines such as nurses, doctors, pharmacist that are working and communicating with each other while providing their knowledge, skills and attributes to enhance and support the contributions of others. Suter et al (2009) also said that the ability to work in an interprofessional team to convey collaborative, patient-centered care is an important aspect of professional practice that involves a possession of a particular set of competencies, such as communication skills. In relation to (Weinstein et al., 2003) Collaboration is the collection of knowledge, skills, values and motives which transforms to effective practice when applied by practitioners.

Having a personalised and holistic approach to a persons pain and discomfort needs good teamwork. E.g. Nurses and care workers may be able to help to support the person with physical pain. By using effective

Pain is a universal human experience and it is subjective. It is a major concern for those with cancer. One of the priorities of hospice is to provide comfort and a pain free death. It is however a concern that many people are still dying with uncontrolled pain. We are interested in hospice and pain management because hospice is known to be a place of comfort where individuals are provided with relief and allowed to die peacefully without pain. The majority of patients in the hospice settings are older adults with advanced cancer. Our goal is to create an intervention that will appropriately deal with the poor pain management experienced by many in hospice care. In order to help us with this task, four articles have been reviewed with regards to hospice and pain management.

As time goes by, people get infected with new diseases or current prevailing diseases. Consequently, new drugs are produced in an attempt to overcome these diseases, which results in patients with complex health needs. The complexity of the patients’ healthcare therefore needs to be addressed by more than one discipline. Interprofessional collaborative care is a type of health care that involves people from different professions working together and relying on each other to provide effective care to patients. Interprofessional collaborative care is important and predominantly a focus of the health care reform because it improves healthcare outcome for the patients and reduces disagreements between different professions. I was able to experience interprofessional care when my grandma was diagnosed with cancer. The physician and the pharmacist worked together in ensuring that she got the proper medication that would not have any side effects on her. In addition, the physician would call the pharmacy every two weeks to check on my grandma’s progress and to ensure that she had picked up her medications. Both my grandma and I were grateful because we felt that our needs were taken care of appropriately. Moreover, interprofessional health care is important in a curriculum because if helps the students to be better prepared to work as a team. This is achieved by teaching students about their own profession while receiving an understanding of the other professions and the roles they

For this reaction paper, I have chosen the topic of whether or not I believe that the Affordable Care Act (Obama Care) should be repealed, replaced with something else, or stay in its current form. I believe that Obama Care should be fully repealed. However, I don’t believe that just repealing this legislation is enough. I believe that there should be a series of reforms ready for implementation that follow free market principles and that will restore economic freedom.

World Health Organization (2010) affirms that the interprofessional education play key role in enhancement of patient outcome with collaborative practice. In Oncology floor where the multi systems of the body affected by the disease itself as well as due to the chemotherapy and radiation, one could witness the need for the interprofessional collaborative care is unavoidable. Timely provision of formulated care plan in action by the various professionals definitely yield the benefit of early recovery and positive patient outcome. Recently we started having the interprofessionals huddle at the bedside of the patient with primary nurse, respiratory therapist, physiotherapist, and occupational therapist for further care planning and implementing

Provision of pain relief is a shared responsibility of the interdisciplinary health care team. For example it may initially form part of the oncologist’s remit to determine the most effective pain management plan for the patient. After treatment has been initiated, oncology nurses may then adopt responsibility for ensuring that pain relief is adequate via regular assessment and action (NICE, 2004, p.80).

“Interprofessional working involves complex interactions between two or more members of different professional disciplines. It is a collaborative venture in which those involved share the common purpose of developing mutually negotiated goals achieved through agreed plans which are monitored and evaluated according to agreed procedures. This requires the pooling of knowledge and expertise to facilitate joint decision making based upon shared professional viewpoints” (Barrett, Sellman & Thomas, 2005, p18). How individuals collaborate and work towards a common goal for the benefit of the patient is essential for a swift recovery.

Working in a team is an important responsibility by understanding each other’s role which may include doctor, nurse, occupational therapist, physiotherapist and many more. Team members divide the work based on their scope practice such as acute care, metal health care, homecare etc. Interprofessional collaboration practice is decision making and communicating between individuals for their patient’s health based on their knowledge and skills. It helps to promote habits, maximizing health resources, leading care to be safer with patient’s satisfaction and Canada’s health care (Kenaszchuk, Reeves, Nicholas, & Zwarenstein, 2010).

Interprofessional working is defined as ‘persons belonging to a profession, relating between and among each other, for the mutual benefit of those involved’ (Day, 2006), whilst attempting to improve the quality of patient care and unite the multidisciplinary team to focus on patient centred, excellent care (Goodman & Clemow, 2010). Interprofessional workers in the healthcare setting can include nursing staff from all fields; adult, mental health, learning disabilities and paediatrics, as well as the wider multidisciplinary team within the ward setting, such as occupational therapists, physiotherapists, doctors, podiatrists, furthermore, expanding from the ward setting to include community nurses, social workers, health visitors and midwives. Interprofessional working enables and encourages these professionals to combine their values and beliefs to focus on the patients and to deliver excellent, patient centred care. This therefore allows them to share a common purpose and goal whilst combining their knowledge, skills and resources as a team (Day, 2006).

The movie “Wit” is a great educational tool for healthcare professionals in terms of dealing with terminally ill patients. It teaches that nurses and medical professionals should always remember that their patients are not a case nor illness nor experiment but rather human beings with souls and pains. Palliative care is one of the most disputed issues of worldwide importance. While bureaucrats in different countries are making laws on the use of palliative drugs, patients with excruciating pains learn how to “take deep breaths and be strong” (Nichols & Brokaw, 2001). That is what nurse Susie Monahan from “Wit” advises her dying patient Vivian Bearing suffering from unbearable pains due to stage IV ovarian cancer after eight painful rounds

The pain from cancer will have an impact off psychology problem. “Find out what people need to know about the most common types of cancer treatment, learn how they work and why they are