Palliative Care Free Essay Example, 1250 words

In the past, palliative care has been offered late during the time when the patients are already suffering from the disease. At this time, the disease is at its last stages and the patients are already hospitalized and in specialized hospital units. At times, they are also receiving consultative services since as patients; they possess symptoms which are uncontrolled. Previous research indicates that the late referral of palliative care to patients with cancer is not capable of changing the quality and care of the services provided for them. As such, so that the quality of services provided to the patients are meaningful to their life and their end of life care, it is important to provide palliative care early in the process of the disease (Temel et. Al. , 735). Chapter III: Research methodology This research involved the random selection of patients who had undergone a recent diagnosis with metastatic non-small-cell lung cancer. They were to receive one of the treatment options presented. These were the provision of early palliative care with the integration of standard oncologic care or the provision of oncologic care that is standard on its own. We will write a custom essay sample on Palliative Care or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/pageorder now Assessment of Several parameters such as the mood and quality of life was done at baseline and after 12 weeks. Some of the equipment used for this was applied in the scale of Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Lung or FACT-L and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale respectively. One of the greatest outcome was the transformation that took place in relation to the quality of life at 2 weeks (Temel, et. al., 736). Chapter IV: Results The baseline characteristics of patients The study involved a total of 151 patients. The percentage of enrolled patients was equal to each of the thoracic oncologists present at the clinic. There were no significant variations in the overall survival or demographic characteristics between the patients participating in the study and the eligible patients who did not take part in the study. Thus, there was an appropriate matching of the baseline characteristics between the two groups involved in the study. A balance was also created among the known prognostic factors such as age, smoking status, sex, the presence or absence of brain metastasis, initial anticancer treatment and the ECOG status of performance. However, genetic testing were not performed on a frequent routine basis. There was a similarity in the two groups in relation to the proportions of patients with epidemial growth factor gene mutations.