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Palliative Care Brings Us Back To The Basics Of Care

Shahina Lakhani

Who is at the center of healthcare?

What does it mean to be at the center healthcare? Should the person with medical knowledge be the one who dictates care and ?the recipients have to follow what is planned without too many questions?

It is difficult to answer these questions until we define the meaning of care. The Webster dictionary gives a lot of different meanings for the word "care".

If we go beyond the words then perhaps it would be easier to understand more about what "care" is all about.

When you observe the behavior of a mother, whether human or in the wild, we begin to understand the meaning of care a little better. The role of a mother is to protect her child's wellbeing.

When caring for an infant a mother takes responsibility for its physical comfort, safety and growth. When the child grows she teaches the child life skills and then she has to mold her own behavior and actions further as the child begins to become more independent.

In other words, the child's wellbeing is the central focus and the mother is the one that supports the child to help meet his/her needs.

So the purpose of care is to help the one you are taking care of meet their goals while providing your support and expertise.

Let us translate this to healthcare. In healthcare, then, the purpose of a care is to support the client in meeting their needs and goals.?

We can only do this if we are actually aware of the needs and goals our clients have. From there we can offer suggestions, options available so on and so forth. But the patient remains at the center of this care.

Palliative care model brings us back to the the basics of what care is all about.

The central goal of palliative care is to provide care the way a person (and ?the family unit) needs and wants to be cared for. The interdisciplinary approach in palliative care is what helps us achieve this goal as holistically as possible.

Best of all, unlike the popular belief, opting for palliative care does not mean we have to forsake curative care.?Palliative care goes hand in hand with traditional curative care and brings to the table an art that has been mostly forgotten.

As a result, we are able to set our patients' wellbeing and quality of life as our primary ?goal rather than just treating the disease.?

Palliative care brings back the art of taking care of the patient as a whole human being rather than just a disease.

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Yours in love, peace and gratitude

Shahina Lakhani

Shahina Lakhani RN MSN Author, Poet, Speaker, Expert Holistic Life Change Strategist. She advocates using holistic strategies in personal empowerment, care of the sick, the dying and their loved ones. Shahina Lakhani has been a nurse for more than 25 years. She has worked as an educator, Nurse Practitioner and a Hospice Nurse. Her passion is to empower people to Live Powerfully and experience Wellbeing until their last breath.