Palliative Care aims to improve quality of life of patients who have a life-threatening illness (World Health Organization, n.d.). World Health Organization (n.d.) suggests palliative care “provides relief from pain and other distressing symptoms; affirms life and regards dying as a normal process; [and] intends neither to hasten or postpone death”. It is common for palliative patients to experience problems with nutrition as their illness progresses (Shaw & Eldridge, 2015). Symptoms and limitations produced by the illness or treatments can impact nutritional intake (Shaw & Eldridge, 2015). Palliative patients may experience diminished interest in food, decrease in appetite, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, constipation, or other gastrointestinal complications (Shaw & Eldridge, 2015). Ethics are “values and beliefs that guide practice” (Pollard, 2014, p. 115). Palliative care requires acting ethically according the patient’s best …show more content…
Providing medical administration of nutrition at the end of life is a controversial matter, as it is ordinarily reserved for lifesaving measures when a patient is unable to eat (van der Riet, Good, Higgins, & Sneesby, 2008). Administering medical, or artificial, nutrition implies supplying nutrients through either an intravenous line or feeding tube (van der Riet et al., 2008). It is common to experience a decreased desire to eat at the end of life; the decrease is usually gradual, until eventual cessation (van der Riet et al., 2008). In earlier stages of illness, the goal is to repair the patient’s nutritional status, but options regarding artificial nutrition are still given careful consideration when a patient’s health further deteriorates (Holmes, 2011). However, when a patient’s mental capacity is impaired and advance