Clinical Reflection Essay

Clinical Reflection: Faith, Hope, and Love

This week’s clinical rotation placed me in a situation that I found myself in, twice, within the past six months. Family faced with the dilemma of prolonging the treatment and pushing for more aggressive curative treatment of a critically ill loved one, or opting instead in providing comfort for their last remaining days. Death is inevitable, but it is something that society is not comfortable discussing. In fact, people, most often set aside the subject and struggle conversing about the issue until they are finally faced with a situation that actually requires for it. This clinical experience had given me a greater perspective of the roles that nurses have in providing palliative care. We have only seen two patients during this clinical round, one at a …show more content…
Hospice, I believe, facilitates a dignified way for the the family to come to terms and accept the impending departure of their loved ones. This is one important aspect that is most often left out, particularly in certain cultures when faced with different options in the provision of care. It is almost considered the grey area in the healthcare profession that nobody really likes to talk about. However, in spite of the primary focus in the preservation of human life, it is also important that some of the focus be shifted towards the quality of life. Thus, I take comfort in the fact that the nurse I followed during this clinical rotation did everything she could to alleviate pain and suffering through the provision of palliative care. In fact, this experience not only allowed me to overcome the lingering guilt associated with the feeling of not doing more to make my loved one well, but also in knowing that it was actually the best thing we could have done for them. Hospice care is not about giving up