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What is palliative care? |
Palliative care is the active total care of patients and their families when the patient’s prognosis is limited and when improving or maintaining quality of life becomes the focus of care rather than cure of the disease. The philosophy for delivering this at Addenbrooke’s Hospital is that the care is patient centred, while encompassing as far as possible the needs of the family and staff involved with the patient. This is based on the following principles:
- The care is active and total. This means that attention is paid to all aspects of the patient’s life that are affected by the illness. Suffering can have physical, psychological, social and spiritual dimensions. It is acknowledged that a patient’s suffering can affect clinical staff as well as their family and carers.
- Support is offered to the patient’s family, and information is given to them about the illness as far as the patient chooses to allow. Palliative care is carried out by doctors, nurses and other professionals in all specialities. The Palliative Care Team exists at Addenbrooke’s to offer specialist advice and support on both symptom control and the total care of patients.
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What is a clinical nurse specialist in palliative care (also known as a Macmillan Nurse)? |
A clinical nurse specialist is a nurse who in addition to completing basic training has gone on to specialise in a particular area. This process of specialisation involves acquiring in-depth experience and training in the specialist area (and often the acquisition of specialist qualifications). Macmillan Nurses are clinical nurse specialists in palliative care who are employed in a post that has been funded by Macmillan Cancer Relief initially and then by the National Health Service (NHS). In any particular setting, there is very little difference between the work done by clinical nurse specialists in palliative care and Macmillan Nurses. There are also other clinical nurse specialists and Macmillan Nurses who specialise in other aspects of care (such as breast care). The clinical nurse specialist role involves clinical nursing, acting as a resource for nursing colleagues, teaching and nursing leadership within the speciality.
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What is the connection between Arthur Rank House and the Addenbrooke’s Palliative Care Service? |
Both the Addenbrooke’s Palliative Care Service and Arthur Rank House aim to give patients excellent palliative care, but they tend to see patients with different needs: one patient with palliative care problems might be better managed in a hospice such as Arthur Rank House, whereas others might need all the resources that a hospital such as Addenbrooke's can provide. Patients will also need the different facilities at different times. We work very closely with Arthur Rank House to make sure that patients can move easily and smoothly between the Hospital, the hospice and their homes - to ensure that they can get the best treatment and care in all of these three places.
Generally, Arthur Rank House will admit patients only from the Cambridge area. If a patient lives outside of the Cambridge area, we make every effort to provide similar continuity of care with their local hospice. |
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