Palliative Care to the Cancer Patient: Reflections According to Paterson and Zderad's View
By: Míria Conceição Lavinas Santos, Lorita Marlena Freitag Pagliuca, and Ana Fátima Carvalho Fernandes
This study explores how Paterson and Zderad's theory applies to palliative care, particularly with regards to terminal cancer patients.
Because palliative care focuses on providing dignity, meaning, comfort, and above all, care (in whatever way that means for the client), a humanistic nursing approach is especially conducive and often parallel. Because clients are in such a meaningful and vulnerable position, a humanistic approach to nursing is especially important. Through P&Z, we can understand the uniqueness of the individual, and the patient’s “full existence” as human, and of the transaction that occurs between nurse and patient.
In Paterson and Zderad, nursing care emphasizes the nurse as giving care, and the nursing process as a shared and meaningful transaction between nurse and patient. As clients in palliative care are in such a vulnerable position, and in such a unique place, respecting the patient as uniquely human, and being aware of what emotions and senses are communicated is especially important. This approach helps to provide meaning to the client and ensure she/he is respected and responded to authentically on the client's terms, as well as allows him/her to experience his/her own death humanely and as envisioned by him/herself. Authentically and genuinely being with with the client will enable the client to connect with the nurse, express his/her perceptions and values, and to be comforted and cared for by the nurse as a human being.
Palliative care philosophies, as those based in Dame Cecily Saunders, are often similar to Paterson and Zderad's view of humanistic nursing. Both emphasize the wholeness of the person, self-realization, the importance of human connection, and of being with the client. Humanistic Nursing, however, helps to provide a new language to understand the values of palliative care, and brings with it new emphasis on the transactional nature of patient-nurse interactions, and a focus on the existential component that enhances and develops human potential.
While not a part of the article, a statement that for me (Justine) stands out as both meaningful and reflective of both palliative and humanistic nursing theory is:
"You matter because you are you, and you matter to the end of your life. We will do all we can not only to help you die peacefully, but also to live until you die." — Dame Cicely Saunders.
Paterson and Zderad would likely agree with this statement and its emphasis on humanity and the value of each human being, as well as with the helping role of a nurse. They might add onto it that this process can be described as a dialogue of being, of caring for and being cared for, and as a part of subjective-objective way of knowing.
By: Míria Conceição Lavinas Santos, Lorita Marlena Freitag Pagliuca, and Ana Fátima Carvalho Fernandes
This study explores how Paterson and Zderad's theory applies to palliative care, particularly with regards to terminal cancer patients.
Because palliative care focuses on providing dignity, meaning, comfort, and above all, care (in whatever way that means for the client), a humanistic nursing approach is especially conducive and often parallel. Because clients are in such a meaningful and vulnerable position, a humanistic approach to nursing is especially important. Through P&Z, we can understand the uniqueness of the individual, and the patient’s “full existence” as human, and of the transaction that occurs between nurse and patient.
In Paterson and Zderad, nursing care emphasizes the nurse as giving care, and the nursing process as a shared and meaningful transaction between nurse and patient. As clients in palliative care are in such a vulnerable position, and in such a unique place, respecting the patient as uniquely human, and being aware of what emotions and senses are communicated is especially important. This approach helps to provide meaning to the client and ensure she/he is respected and responded to authentically on the client's terms, as well as allows him/her to experience his/her own death humanely and as envisioned by him/herself. Authentically and genuinely being with with the client will enable the client to connect with the nurse, express his/her perceptions and values, and to be comforted and cared for by the nurse as a human being.
Palliative care philosophies, as those based in Dame Cecily Saunders, are often similar to Paterson and Zderad's view of humanistic nursing. Both emphasize the wholeness of the person, self-realization, the importance of human connection, and of being with the client. Humanistic Nursing, however, helps to provide a new language to understand the values of palliative care, and brings with it new emphasis on the transactional nature of patient-nurse interactions, and a focus on the existential component that enhances and develops human potential.
While not a part of the article, a statement that for me (Justine) stands out as both meaningful and reflective of both palliative and humanistic nursing theory is:
"You matter because you are you, and you matter to the end of your life. We will do all we can not only to help you die peacefully, but also to live until you die." — Dame Cicely Saunders.
Paterson and Zderad would likely agree with this statement and its emphasis on humanity and the value of each human being, as well as with the helping role of a nurse. They might add onto it that this process can be described as a dialogue of being, of caring for and being cared for, and as a part of subjective-objective way of knowing.