Palliative Care

Within this assignment the writer aims to identify and explore in depth the role development of the specialist palliative care nurses in the community setting, and in particular how their role has evolved over the last 5 years. The writer aims for the first part of the assignment to provide the reader with a brief background into the development of palliative care and a history of how the traditional role of a palliative care nurse has expanded from a more generalist perspective to that of a position of specialism. The writer will highlight the essential skills and qualities deemed crucial from a professional perspective in implementing such an expanded nursing role, with particular attention focusing on the impact this role development has made to patient centred care. The writer will highlight the importance of inter-professional working in palliative care, and provide evidence of how the government priorities have changed the boundaries of palliative care and how this has impacted on provision of palliative care services. The second half of the assignment aims to show analysis of both the role development of community specialist palliative care nurses and the recent changes, and provide evidence of how this role has impacted on society. The writer will aim to show evidence of how the role has been successful by providing patients perspectives of the service, and more importantly what improvements could be made in order to ensure the safety of positions with the introduction of the new commissioning process being implemented.
The World Health Organisation (2009) defines palliative care as supporting patients and their families with physical, psychological, social and spiritual aspects of care during a physically and emotionally difficult journey of living with a non-curative condition.
People’s awareness of palliative care has been linked to the rise of the modern hospice movement back in 1967, when a doctor by the name of Dame Cicely Saunders was responsible

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