Addressing how caregivers can help nurses in managing patients’ pain and its related suffering: Caregivers play an essential role in taking care of end-of-life patients.

Their involvement will help reduce nurses’ work pressure. They can assist with prescribing patients with pain medication as per the doctors’ instructions and providing them with spiritual and emotional support (LaValley, 2018). They can also help patients with non-pharmacological pain interventions. The nurses must provide them with adequate training to assist in taking care of their ailing patients. Therefore, the training program will address the need for nurses to train caregivers on what to expect from them when taking care of hospice care patients.

How the Policy Practice Guideline will improve the Quality of Care and Outcomes

Federal law (42CFR Section 418.52) states that patients have a right to access effective symptom and pain management from their hospice program. They must be engaged in the design of their care, and medics must consider their treatment goals and those of their family members. The law also states that the intervention designed must be updated and comprehensive. Therefore, the practice guideline will ensure that nurses provide quality care to patients enrolled in the facility’s hospice program. Effective management of their pain will improve their quality of life by reducing incidents of depression and suicide. Nurses will be informed that failing to comply with the national standards might result in legal lawsuits for the company. Additionally, patients might sue them for failure to comply with the national standards. Therefore, the outcome of the training program includes improved nurse competence in managing pain and its related symptoms, nurses’ ability to  educate caregivers, caregivers’ involvement in care delivery, and the significant improvements on the underperforming measures.

References

1. Berry, L.L., Connor, S.R., and Stuart, B.(2017). Practical ideas for improving the quality of hospice care. Journal of Palliative Medicine, 20(5), 449-452. https://doi.org/10.1089/jpm.2017.0016
2. LaValley, S.A.(2018). End-of-life caregiver social support activation: The roles of hospice clinicians and professionals. Qualitative Health Research, 28(1), 87-97.
3. Medicare.gov.(n.d). Kindred Hospice. Retrieved from, https://www.medicare.gov/hospicecompare/#profileandpid=151594andpreviousPages=resultsandcmpids=151594
4. Powers, J.S.(2017). Emerging quality improvement concepts to enhance the patient and family experience in hospice and palliative care. Palliative Medicine and Hospice Care, 3(2), 22-25. http://dx.doi.org/10.17140/PMHCOJ-3-123