Navigating End-of-Life Care- A Reflective Journey through Gone From My Sight

Navigating End-of-Life Care- A Reflective Journey through Gone From My Sight

However, the flow and stages in the dying experience may be notable a month or three before the actual death occurs.

The stages move from the patient withdrawing from the world around them as the reality of their death becomes apparent to them (Karnes, 2021). They even eat less or majorly become choosy on what to eat and prefer liquids to solids. A week or two to their death, the patient grows disoriented with notable physical and body changes, including lowering of blood pressure, fluctuations of body temperature, and skin color changes. In a day or two to a few hours before death, the patient grows energetic, and at the same time, the systems begin to shut down. The people around the patient, especially the close family, experience the loss of their loved one.

This text is applicable in my nursing practice and specifically in the delivery of end-of-life care. In my perspective, the text is like a guide to caring for the patient and their family during the patient’s end of life. From the three months to the final hour of death, Barbara Karnes’ text guides on what to do as an end-of-life nurse. From the evidence on end-of-life care for cancer patients, patient needs keep changing, and nurses are expected to adjust care based on these changes (Angheluta et al., 2020). The text can guide how to adapt care to the changing needs of the patient from eating habits, changes in their vitals, and other physical changes to afford them a dignified end-of-life care and transition to death. Families bereaved families also have their experiences due to the death of their loved one (Morris et al., 2020). The text clearly captures these experiences and clearly identifies the need to provide support for the family as they go through the hard experiences of losing a loved one.

References

Angheluta, A. A., Gonella, S., Sgubin, C., Dimonte, V., Bin, A., & Palese, A. (2020). When and how clinical nurses adjust nursing care at the end-of-life among patients with cancer: Findings from multiple focus groups. European Journal of Oncology Nursing, 49, 101856. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.EJON.2020.101856

Karnes, B. (2021). Gone from my sight: The dying experience. Barbara Karnes Books.

Morris, S. E., Moment, A., & Thomas, J. de L. (2020). Caring for Bereaved Family Members During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Before and After the Death of a Patient. Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, 60(2), e70–e74. https://doi.org/10.1016/