Palliative Care & Radiotherapy Programme in the Outpatient Clinic of the Department of Radiotherapy, St Luke’s Hospital, Dublin.
Background, a brief description of the area of practice in which this proposal relates to.
Advances in medical technology, such as laparoscopic surgery or breast tumour excisions, have had repercussions on oncological healthcare, including organisational consequences. An important consequence is the need to provide more outpatient and day care services.A shift to outpatient treatment then implies that patients face more, though shorter, contacts and hospital visits and consequently a greater number of transitions between the levels of care over the course of the illness. …show more content…
With progression of disease, patients experience diminished ability to carry out activities of daily living and decreased capacity to recover from tasks.The goal of palliative care is to identify and alleviate physical, psychological, spiritual, and practical needs of the patient and family, promoting the best possible quality of life in the remaining time.Teams consisting of multiple supportive care disciplines have been shown to more frequently identify unmet needs, to be more attentive to symptom control issues, and to elicit greater satisfaction among …show more content…
Ultimately it will be vital for me to highlight this information and get all members of the team on board to ensure optimisation of patient care.We would have tom invest on adequate and appropriate level of education and training for the members of staff involved. This would ensure open communication to agree on mutual expectation over change in services. I would encourage staff and stakeholders to participate and comment on the proposed change so that they will also take ownership to the design and process of change. This can improve compliance to