Palliative Care in the Home Review

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(More customer reviews)Palliative Care in the Home is a gem of a book, written by two noted palliative care specialists who were formerly general practitioners. First and foremost, Doyle and Jeffrey are concerned with quality of care. This reviewer believes their book will be of as much interest to nurses working in the home as to the physicians.
The book addresses special problems and challenges faced by both doctors and nurses in delivering palliative care within the home setting. There is special focus on home nursing issues. The authors maintain that good palliative care ought to begin in the home whether or not the patient is eventually admitted to hospital or special palliative care unit.
This small reference book is written in a straightforward style, and so is very readable and understandable, for the medical professional as well as the general reader with some knowledge and interest in the field of palliative care. The importance of the multi-disciplinary team is stressed throughout, along with the ethical need to respect patient autonomy and decision-making. Patients and families must be encouraged to express their feelings and views, and so take an active partnership role in providing care. Needs of the family carers and stresses on palliative care providers are among other issues developed.
The reader will find extensive, current material on symptom diagnosis, appropriate palliation and guidelines for medications to manage pain for a wide variety of diseases. Other chapters offer insights and guidelines to general practitioners who wish to use their counseling skills to offer bereavement counseling. There is an extensive bibliography of comprehensive reference books on palliative medicine and other specialized issues, as well as appendices listing useful drugs for the doctor's bag and setting up the syringe driver.

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Most people with far-advanced illness wish to be cared for at home for as long as possible.The challenge of providing good palliative care at home is therefore of major importance for family doctors, nurses and all those committed to maintaining the highest possible quality of life for the dying person. As modern specialist palliative care has raised both standards of care and also public expectations of family doctors and community nurses, this book helps to place specialist care in context.As palliative care is a major responsibility for teams providing palliative care at home, this book provides a definitive guide on how to provide effective care for people with far-advanced disease.Written by two palliative medicine specialists, both of whom have been family doctors, this book deals with all the physical, emotional, spiritual and social problems likely to be encountered by family doctors and community nurses caring for a patient and relatives at home.It deals in detail with emergencies, communications, ethical issues and emphasizes throughout the importance of team work.'It provides a wealth of information and advice on all aspects of palliative care at home'. Elaine Coleridge Smith Information Exchange, No. 13, 1995