Assignment task:
Ms. T: Need for Palliative Care at the Time of Diagnosis
The Cancer Center's Palliative Care Team, comprised of a nursing director of palliative care, social worker, and spiritual care counselor who integrate into the oncologist's practice, met with Ms. T following her first office visit for newly diagnosed pancreatic cancer. Ms. T is 70 yrs old, is a retired school teacher, lives alone and her only family is a son who lives far away from here.
Discussion Questions:
Q1. At the team's first visit, Ms. T says "What do I need a team like this for? I am here at the cancer center to be cured?" How does the team introduce the concept of palliative care to a patient with newly diagnosed advanced stage cancer?
Q2. How does the team provide care to the patient and her son?
Case continues:The team follows Ms. T throughout the course of treatment, seeing her at doctor visits, chemotherapy treatments and radiation therapy. It has been eight months and the disease has progressed to the point that chemotherapy is no longer an option.
Discussion Question:
Q3. When is the appropriate time to introduce the concept of hospice care? How can the team explain this type of care to Ms. T?