Internship report on palliative care at St Catherine's hospice

• Autor(a) principal: Monteiro, Andreia Marlene da Silva
• Data de Publicação: 2016
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.14/20637

This report, performed in the context of the completion of the masters in Palliative Care, presents the activities and learning experiences that I have acquired during the months of training in the different settings of palliative care. This internship was performed at St Catherine’s Hospice (Inpatient unit, Day hospice and Community team) and with the National Health Service of East Surrey Hospital Specialist Palliative Care Team. Alongside the institutional involvement, internship activities had other levels of action: the needs of training of the healthcare professionals of the Inpatient Unit of St Catherine’s Hospice, with a realization of a training session in Agitation and Restlessness; and the need for updating through the realization of a systematic study on continuous subcutaneous infusion by syringe driver for symptom control at the end of life, a reality with little dissemination and implementation in Portugal, according to my experience. All activities contributed to personal and professional changes, especially in terms of conceptualization and clarification of the following components: the importance of team work to the efficiency of the Palliative Care network (how the different palliative care settings interact with each other in an efficient manner) for better palliative care; communication as a beginning, a middle and an end; the importance of community care and symptomatic control for improved quality of care. The study case, that allowed me to deepen the reflections about my daily experience during this internship, permitted me to see evidence of how complex it is to provide holistic care to patients, family and carers, as an inseparable unit of intervention.