Case study 3 Tuesday 17 May 2016, 8.00 am Alana is entering the end-of-life stag
ID: 127627 • Letter: C
Question
Case study 3
Tuesday 17 May 2016, 8.00 am Alana is entering the end-of-life stage. She often has difficulty breathing. She likes Mai to stroke her arm and apply massage oil. One morning she whispers to Mai that she doesn’t have the energy to see her friends and extended family anymore. She asks if Mai can tell them that she loves them but she can’t see them anymore. As Mai is helping her out of bed, Alana says, ‘I don’t think I can have a shower today’. Mai tells her that is all right and that she can bathe her in her room instead. Just as Mai is reassuring her, Alana groans with pain. She clutches her chest and starts to cry. Mai knows she is allowed to watch Alana self-medicate so she makes sure the pain-relief tablet is taken. Alana’s family is aware that Alana is entering the end of her life and Alana’s husband would like Alana to die at home surrounded by her family members. Alana expresses that she is more comfortable in the hospice and would prefer to remain there.
To whom should Mai report Alana’s changing needs and issues in relation to end of life?
When a person accessing services makes a decision that impacts the families, carers and/or significant other, what course of action should the support worker follow?
How can the support worker assist the person accessing services to choose the location of their end-of-life care?
What might a support worker observe and document about pain for a person and how should this be reported?
Identify two strategies that Mai implements to manage Alana’s pain and provide comfort.
Identify a problem-solving strategy that Mai implements to manage Alana’s pain and still maintain personal hygiene
Explanation / Answer
Alana prefer to spend her remaining life in a hospice, that Mai should inform her husband because he is reponsible to take decision as Alana is in her end of life.Also they should inform the health care worker or a palliative care team and they will decide wheather the patient require hospice care(if they are going to die within 6 months) A in hospice attempts to treat patients illness are stopped.it provided for person with terminal illness.
The care worker should watch for the pain in the patient and provide only support and comfot measures to the patient.Also give emotional and spiritualsupport to the patient.
Mai can make strategies for managing Alan's pain,which include proviide comfort measures like massaging , or administrating pain medications. Also she can use s ome alternate methods to distract the patient such as music therapy. She can provide some measures like elevation of painful part, turning in the bed and try to spend time together.