Neuropalliative care aims to address the needs of patients with life-limiting neurologic disease. Although the goals of palliative care are to enhance quality of life until death, conventional palliative care approaches are not a good fit for patients with neurologic disease (Sofronas & Wright, 2021). According to the WHO, patients with neurologic disease face stigma, discrimination, and health inequities due to functional changes, chronic pain and other challenging symptom management (2006), and these become more pronounced with disease progression. Care planning and provision bring about many ethical dilemmas for clinical teams.
This workshop outlines the development of neuropalliative care, reviewing why conventional palliative care approaches are not well suited to patients living with serious neurologic disease. We also review approaches to ethical dilemmas and moral reasoning, focusing specifically on the needs of patients with life-limiting neurologic disease and on nursing practice. We then apply these principles in a group discussion of clinical cases.
The Objectives of this workshop are: 1. Become familiar with principles of the palliative approach and neuropalliative care. 2. Review ethical principles and moral reasoning strategies. 3. Apply this knowledge in a discussion of clinical cases.
