Developing nursing expertise in caring for older advanced stage heart failure patients and their families--palliative and end-of-life care

Abstract

Patients living with chronic heart failure (CHF) often have poor quality of life and similar symptoms as patients with cancer. Despite this, these patients receive less specialist palliative care. Some of the major barriers in providing high-quality care for end stage CHF patients are the conflicting conceptualization of palliative care among health care professionals as a system of care delivery at the terminal phase of the illness versus philosophy of care introduced early in conjunction with life-prolonging treatments, the unpredictable nature of the illness trajectory, lack of knowledge among acute care nurses about palliative care and lack of communication with patients and their families. The aim of this article is to identify evidence-based strategies and frameworks that would aid nurses and other health care professionals in the integration of palliative care into the care path of CHF patients.