Issues in Palliative Care Nursing Research Proposal

Issues in Palliative Care Nursing - Research Proposal Example However, majority of the nurses have insufficient training in communication skills, and, thus, conveying bad news has been a great issue in palliative care nursing. Research has indicated that poor communication skills may make the nurse frustrated or cause burnout. At other times, the nurses may be faced with an ethical dilemma such as euthanasia, and fail to come up with a proper decision. This is because most of them know nothing about moral sensitivity. A nurse who lacks moral sensitivity cannot use moral components or elements such as honesty and fidelity to make a proper ethical decision about a particular situation. Just like poor communication skills, inability to deal with an ethical dilemma can cause burnout and/or make the nurse frustrated. Thus, both ethical dilemmas and communication skills are key issues that can affect the quality of palliative care offered by the nurse. How the Problem Was Identified Palliative care is given to patients who are in the process of dying . These patients usually suffer from terminal diseases (diseases that have no cure or treatment). Dealing with these patients and their families is a big problem for the nurses especially if they have poor communication skills and cannot solve an ethical dilemma. ... Therefore, it becomes an issue if the nurse cannot offer holistic support to the patients. Research has indicated that communications skills and ethical dilemmas are issues in palliative care nursing. Brief Overview of Why It Is a Problem in Nursing As stated before, the quality of the patient and the nurse relationship has a direct effect on the quality of care provided. If the relationship is compromised by poor communication skills and inability to deal with ethical dilemmas, then, the quality of the care given will be low based on the severity of the compromise. Good communication skills and the ability to deal with ethical dilemmas are important because the opposite may adversely affect the holistic well-being of the patient and their families. Nurses are also affected in that they can get frustrated when they are unable to communicate well and deal with ethical dilemmas. Burnout can also occur if the nurse is unable to deal with these issues. Literature Review The purpose of pa lliative care is to enhance the quality of life and being supportive through the management and control of the patient’s symptoms to attain the best quality of life for the patients and their families. In such a case, death should not be hastened or postponed (Hughes, Bakos, O’Mara, and Kovner, 2005). The quality of the nurse and client relationship has a direct impact on the quality of care offered, and thus, important for effective nursing practice (McWilliam, Oudshoorn, and Ward-Griffin, 2007). Communication skills are significant in effective or successful delivery of palliative care. Much emphasis has been put on physician communication and this has brought a number of issues. Less emphasis has been put on communication as an important skill for the nurses. It is important to