#NationalNursesWeek: Beyond Stigmas: Navigating Palliative Care
Melissa Chadwick’s career in palliative care honours the legacy of her dad, who was only 49 when he died in hospital. She had just started nursing school when he was diagnosed with a tumour and metastasis, passing away only five weeks later.?
On the most recent episode of the Cancer Assist Podcast, Chadwick, an experienced healthcare clinician, palliative care nurse, and health systems planner, sits down with host Dr. Bill Evans to talk about her own experiences with cancer and how they have informed her work in hospice and home care. She talks about the evolving landscape of palliative care and challenges stigmas surrounding end-of-life care.
“The more time I’ve spent working in palliative — and I’ve worked at hospice and I’ve done visiting nursing and worked at home care — I find that more and more, we’re talking about being hopeful and talking about planning,” she says, emphasising the importance of providing a deeper understanding of comfort and support for patients, their families, and loved ones.
This can mean not only talking about death and dying, but also focusing also on goals on patient and caregiver goals.?
"Don't be afraid to ask questions,” she says. “I find people sometimes feel like the doctor, nurse, or the nurse practitioner is the authority. And we don't know everything. We need to spend more time asking people less clinical questions and more about what's really important to them.”
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Chadwick says that one question patients and their caregivers can ask when experiencing a serious or life-limiting illness is: “Where am I in my journey? Or where is my loved one in their journey?” More specifically, asking whether they’re in the beginning, middle, or end can be helpful when establishing goals.?
Chadwick suggests that the way death is depicted on television and in movies can lead to a myth that palliative care only includes end-of-life activities. Instead, it can offer both mental and physical support, resource sharing, and initiate important conversations in healthcare.?
"If we think about death, it makes our life more meaningful,” she says. “If we can walk as a companion with it, instead of being afraid of it, I think things would be a bit better."