ID-5184 Wonca Abstracts supplement A-K 13-10-23 - Flipbook - Page 203
WONCA 2023 Supplement 1: WONCA 2023 abstracts (A–K)
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A good death in the context of palliative care:
A person-centred and family-focused approach
Dr Ma Angelica Cielo Exconde
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Quirino Memorial Medical Center
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Objectives
This paper aims to present a patient with terminal cancer whose values, preferences and wishes
were honoured and respected utilising person-centred and family-focused approaches in order to
experience a good death.
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Subjects and methods
A 68-year-old woman with Stage IV breast cancer was referred for end-of-life care. Priority was given
to alleviate her pain and restlessness. Concurrently, her requests to be with family and hold family
vigils despite being in the hospital were granted. Personal wishes rendered included: reading the
bible, listening to her favourite songs, bedside prayers and meticulous self-care, like hair and make-up.
Continuous communication between the family and the healthcare team was ensured to optimise
management.
Outcomes
Tools used in the family’s evaluation of the patient’s death were the Good Death Inventory (GDI) and
Brief Grief Questionnaire (BGQ). Based on the primary caregiver’s GDI answers, she agreed her
mother had a good death in the majority of domains, particularly in receiving physical psychological
comfort, diminished burden of care, being respected, attaining life completion and dying a natural
death. On her answers to the BGQ, there was absence of complicated grief three months after the
death of her mother.
Conclusion
More than optimum medical management, there is a need to be able to fulfil the patient’s spiritual,
emotional and psychological needs to help them attain a good death and prevent complicated grief in
their loved ones.
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