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Palliative Care: Helping You Live Better With Chronic Illness
When someone hears the words “palliative care,” it can sometimes cause concern. Families may wonder, Does this mean we are talking about hospice? Are we giving up on treatment?
The answer is no.
Palliative care helps someone live more comfortably and maintain the best quality of life possible while managing a serious or chronic health condition. It provides an additional layer of support for the patient and family and can be introduced at any stage of an illness.
At Blue Skies Nursing, we work with individuals and families navigating chronic illness every day. We collaborate with physicians, specialists and palliative care providers to help carry the medical plan into the place where it matters most: home and daily life.
What Is Palliative Care?
Palliative care is specialized medical care focused on relieving symptoms, managing pain, reducing stress and improving quality of life for people living with serious or chronic illness.
It looks beyond the diagnosis to consider how an illness is affecting the whole person. This may include:
Pain
Shortness of breath
Fatigue and weakness
Nausea or changes in appetite
Difficulty sleeping
Anxiety or depression
Medication concerns
Changes in mobility and independence
Emotional and caregiver stress
Decisions about treatment and future care
Palliative care can be provided alongside treatment for the underlying disease. A person can continue seeing specialists, receiving treatment and pursuing therapies while also receiving palliative care.
Palliative Care Is Not the Same as Hospice
This is one of the most common misconceptions about palliative care.
Hospice is comfort-focused care for people approaching the end of life. Palliative care can begin much earlier in the course of an illness and does not require someone to stop treatment. Palliative care does NOT require a terminal illness diagnosis or the "6-months to live" regulation that hospice does.
A simple way to think about palliative care is as another member of the health care team asking:
“How can we help you feel better and live as well as possible while dealing with this illness?”
Families should not be afraid to ask about palliative care because they worry it means they are “ready for hospice.” Palliative care is not about giving up. It is about adding support.
Palliative Care and Chronic Disease
Chronic illness rarely affects just one part of someone's life.
Conditions such as congestive heart failure, COPD, cancer, Parkinson's disease, dementia, kidney disease and other progressive illnesses can bring a complicated combination of symptoms, medications, appointments and changes in independence.
For someone living with chronic illness, the goal isn't always simply to “fix” one medical problem. It is often about finding the right balance between treating the disease, managing symptoms and maintaining quality of life.
Palliative care can help patients and families look at the bigger picture. Are symptoms adequately controlled? Are medications helping or creating additional challenges? Is the person able to continue doing the things that are important to them? What additional support would make life at home easier?
These conversations can be especially valuable when several specialists and health care providers are involved.
Palliative Care and Pain Management
Chronic pain can affect much more than physical comfort. It can interfere with sleep, appetite, mobility, mood, independence and someone's ability to participate in activities they enjoy.
Palliative care providers look at pain as part of the patient's larger medical picture and work with the health care team to develop an individualized approach to symptom relief.
Pain management does not necessarily mean simply adding more medication. Depending on the person's condition and medical recommendations, it may include medications, rehabilitation, physical therapy, positioning, mobility strategies, emotional support and other interventions.
The goal is not only to ask, “What is your pain level?”
It is also to ask, “What is this pain preventing you from doing, and how can we help?”
You Don't Have to Navigate It Alone
Chronic illness doesn't happen only during a doctor's appointment. It happens at home. This is where Blue Skies Nursing can become an important part of the care team.
Our nurses work alongside physicians, specialists and palliative care providers to help bring the plan of care into everyday life. Depending on a person's needs, Blue Skies Nursing can help monitor symptoms and changes in condition, support physician-directed pain and symptom management, oversee medications, monitor mobility and overall function, communicate concerns to medical providers and help coordinate care as needs change.
Having an experienced nurse involved also provides something that can be difficult to find when several providers are involved: continuity. We get to know our clients, their routines and what is normal for them. This can help us recognize changes, ask the right questions and communicate important information back to the medical team.
Just as importantly, we are there for the family. Living with chronic illness can feel complicated, and trying to coordinate appointments, medications, symptoms and changing needs can quickly become overwhelming.
At Blue Skies Nursing, our goal is to help make that journey a little easier. We are here to listen, coordinate, notice the little changes that matter and support both the person receiving care and the family who loves them.
You don't have to have all the answers or figure it all out on your own. Blue Skies Nursing is here to help you navigate what comes next.
We're here for you.
Together... we've got this!
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