Palliative care: An alien concept in Pakistan

Abstract

Every living being has to die. Respecting a dying individual’s personal values and preferences is a challenge. We live in a culture where family decisions are given priority over individual’s wish. To address this challenge, a concept of palliative or comfort care is newly introduced in Pakistan. Palliative care is a multidisciplinary specialty that emphases on prevention and relieving suffering as well as supporting the optimal quality of life of patients and their families (Bailey, Harman, Bruera, Arnold, & Savarese,2014). In Pakistan, the concept of palliative care is like a newborn baby who needs a lot of ethical attention in terms of patient’s autonomous decision, family members’ care for the patient and the medical team’s professional obligations. So, in a tug of war between the medical team and the family, the patient should not suffer. I, as a nurse, would like to create a universal familiarity and awareness about palliative care and its associated ethical concerns and suggest nurse’s responsibilities to promote comfort care at home. “There is an appointed time for everything. A time to give birth and a time to die”. Ecclesiastes 3:2