End-Stage Heart Disease

Thee study aimed to explore various symptoms experienced by patients with end-stage heart disease, who had recently been admitted into a hospice. Researchers wanted to determine what symptoms were most prevalent within patients, and how severe these occurring symptoms were in each individual. Researchers conducted the study through analyzing self-completed charts in which each individual patient explored their own symptoms in detail. These were then compared and analyzed to lead researchers to come to the conclusions which they had reached at the final result of the study. Several symptoms were found to be prevalent both in certain patient patterns, as well as all patients in general. These results, however, are rather weak in comparison to other studies. The designers of this study relied heavily on the patient's perspective, which leaves out a lot of authority from doctors and other health care professionals which would have given the results stronger credibility. Although this method helped give a better picture of psychological symptoms, it did lack credence in determining the validity of physical symptoms. Other limitations which further hindered the analytical strength of the study, was the fact it was conducted only in one hospital.

The suggestions provided by the researchers in the conclusion of the study are both enlightening and appropriate to further study and methodology of care giving within hospice. The designers of this research propose the idea that hospice care should include attention towards a patient's physical symptoms, but also their psychological symptoms which are bound to be prevalent within the atmosphere of a hospice. Attention geared towards the patient's psychological wellness will greatly improve the quality of life which the patient must endure while awaiting the inevitable inside the hospice walls. These conclusions and suggestions, although somewhat of a transgression from the primary focus of the study, are important for the truth they hold within them.

References

McMillan, Susan C., Dunbar, Sandra, B., Zhang, Weihua. (2007). The prevalence of symptoms in hospice patients with end-stage heart disease. Journal of Hospice and Palliative Nursing. 9(3).