A nurse is providing care for an 82-year-old woman on the palliative care unit of a hospital. The woman has a long-standing diagnosis of diabetes that has manifested in serious cardiac problems and she is not expected to survive the weekend
How can the nurse best understand this course of events in light of the chronic care that the patient has long received? A) Death represents the ultimate failure of the provision of care.
B) Dying in comfort and dignity is the final component of high-quality chronic care.
C) The period of death represents the transition from chronic care to acute care.
D) Holistic, chronic care requires that the nurse limit care to psychosocial interventions.
B
Feedback:
Dying a "good death" is a component of sound chronic care. It does not necessarily represent a failure of care nor does the near-death period mark the end of chronic care. Chronic care includes, but is not limited to, psychosocial interventions. Pain control and comfort care, for example, require pharmacological interventions that are still congruent with chronic care and the focus on healing and quality of life.
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