Let’s dive into a topic many people find daunting or confusing: hospice care. There are so many myths floating around that it’s easy to misunderstand what hospice is about. Whether you’re considering hospice for a loved one or want to expand your knowledge, let’s clear up some common misconceptions together!
How Hospice and Palliative Care Can Help Patients with Cardiac Disease
How Hospice and Palliative Care Can Help Patients with Cardiac Disease
Cardiovascular disease remains one of the leading causes of death worldwide, affecting millions of individuals and their families. For patients living with severe heart disease, managing symptoms, and improving quality of life are paramount. While traditional treatments focus on prolonging life, there are instances when curative interventions are no longer effective, and living in comfort becomes the primary goal. In both situations, hospice and palliative care can play a critical role.
Both hospice and palliative care aim to provide compassionate support for patients and their families, but they differ in timing and approach. However, they share a common goal of improving quality of life for patients facing serious illness. For those with advanced cardiac disease, these types of care can be transformative.
What is Palliative Care?
Palliative care is an integrated approach to treating patients with serious or life-limiting illnesses. Palliative care concentrates on symptom management, pain relief, and improving overall quality of life while you are receiving your curative treatment. Palliative care can be provided alongside curative treatments and at any stage of illness, not just at the end of life. Lightways uses nurse practitioners and social workers to address your illness, symptoms, and care issues.
What is Hospice Care?
Hospice care, on the other hand, is specifically for patients who are nearing the end of life and no longer seeking curative treatment. It is typically recommended when doctors predict that a patient has approximately six months or less to live, and the focus shifts from prolonging life to providing comfort and support. It is important to note here that cardiac and lung disease are hard to predict and patients often live longer than 6 months. Hospice care is provided in the home, hospital, or facility, and it involves a team of professionals—including doctors, nurses, social workers, nurses’ aide, integrative therapies, and chaplains—who work together to address the patient’s physical, emotional, and spiritual needs.
How Hospice and Palliative Care Benefit Cardiac Disease Patients
Cardiac disease, especially when it becomes advanced or end-stage, can be highly unpredictable. Symptoms such as shortness of breath, fatigue, chest pain, swelling, and depression can significantly affect daily life. For many, these symptoms cannot be fully managed with traditional medical interventions. Here’s how hospice and palliative care can help:
1. Symptom Management
Heart failure can cause a variety of debilitating symptoms. These may include shortness of breath (dyspnea), chronic fatigue, fluid retention, and severe chest pain. Managing these symptoms is central to improving a patient’s quality of life. Palliative and hospice care specialists use a variety of treatments, including medications, breathing techniques, physical therapy, and advanced symptom management strategies, to ensure patients are as comfortable as possible.
For instance, pain or discomfort caused by heart disease can be controlled with appropriate medications, while shortness of breath can be alleviated with oxygen therapy or breathing exercises. Anxiety and depression are common among those with severe cardiac disease, and hospice teams can offer counseling, medications, and integrative therapies to help manage emotional distress. Your palliative care nurse practitioner can provide referrals and work with your physician to order the correct medication.
2. Focus on Quality of Life, Not Just Longevity
Traditional cardiac treatments focus on prolonging life, often through invasive procedures, medications, or surgeries. However, for many patients with advanced heart disease, these treatments may no longer offer significant benefits and can sometimes lead to unnecessary discomfort or complications. Hospice and palliative care provide an alternative by focusing on making the time remaining as meaningful and comfortable as possible.
The care team collaborates with the patient and their family to understand their values, goals, and preferences. This allows for individualized care plans that prioritize comfort, dignity, and emotional well-being, rather than focusing solely on survival. For example, a patient who values time with family may choose to reduce the frequency of hospital visits and instead receive home-based care, allowing them to spend more time with loved ones in a familiar setting.
3. Psychological and Emotional Support
Chronic cardiac disease often brings emotional and psychological challenges, both for patients and their families. Patients may struggle with feelings of anxiety, depression, or fear about the future, while family members may feel overwhelmed by caregiving responsibilities or grief.
Palliative care provides a social worker who can be a resource to you for support, hiring caregivers and using other resources.
Hospice care provides the richness of a full interdisciplinary team that includes social workers, chaplains, nurse’s aides, nurses, volunteers, and integrative therapies.
These professionals can help patients process their feelings about their illness and impending death, while also providing family members with guidance on coping strategies, grief support, and the emotional aspects of caregiving. This comprehensive approach allows the patient and their family to better navigate the emotional complexities that arise in the context of serious illness.
3. Psychological and Emotional Support
Chronic cardiac disease often brings emotional and psychological challenges, both for patients and their families. Patients may struggle with feelings of anxiety, depression, or fear about the future, while family members may feel overwhelmed by caregiving responsibilities or grief.
Palliative care provides a social worker who can be a resource to you for support, hiring caregivers and using other resources.
Hospice care provides the richness of a full interdisciplinary team that includes social workers, chaplains, nurse’s aides, nurses, volunteers, and integrative therapies.
These professionals can help patients process their feelings about their illness and impending death, while also providing family members with guidance on coping strategies, grief support, and the emotional aspects of caregiving. This comprehensive approach allows the patient and their family to better navigate the emotional complexities that arise in the context of serious illness.
4. Personalized Care Plans
Every patient’s experience with cardiac disease is unique, which is why a one-size-fits-all approach is often insufficient. Hospice and palliative care teams collaborate closely with the patient, their family, and their primary care provider to develop a personalized care plan. This plan reflects the patient’s specific symptoms, needs, values, and preferences.
For example, a patient with advanced heart failure might need a tailored medication regimen to manage pain and shortness of breath, while also requiring psychological support to address anxiety related to their prognosis. Palliative care team nurse practitioners will also coordinate with cardiologists to ensure that any ongoing treatments are aligned with the patient’s goals. Palliative care can also use telehealth to monitor important vital signs.
5. Support for Family Caregivers
Caring for someone with advanced cardiac disease can be physically and emotionally exhausting. Palliative and hospice care teams recognize the strain that caregiving can place on family members and offer support to caregivers.
The Hospice Medicare Benefit provides 5 days of inpatient respite at our inpatient unit or a contracted long-term care facility.
Additionally, hospice care includes a minimum of 13 months of grief support, helping families cope with grief after the patient’s death. This long-term support is a key element of the hospice experience and helps families navigate the difficult journey of loss.
When Is the Right Time for Hospice or Palliative Care?
The decision to transition to hospice or palliative care can be difficult, especially for patients and families accustomed to the idea of aggressive medical treatments. However, there are times when palliative or hospice care is the best option for patients with advanced heart disease. This might include when a patient experiences:
- Frequent hospitalizations due to complications of heart disease or other related conditions.
- It takes a tremendous effort to get to the physician’s office.
- The ability to complete the activities of daily living (bathing, toileting etc.) becomes difficult.
- Severe symptoms that are difficult to manage with conventional treatments.
- The desire to prioritize comfort, quality of life, and family time over curative treatments.
Patients and families are encouraged to discuss palliative or hospice care options with their doctor when they feel that the burden of treatment outweighs the benefits. Alternatively, call us and we will call your doctor for you.
Lightways Hospice and Serious Illness Care can provide a vital support system for patients with cardiac disease, offering symptom relief, emotional support, and improved quality of life when curative options are no longer effective. By focusing on comfort, dignity, and the patient’s personal preferences, these services help patients, and their families navigate the challenges of living with a serious heart condition, ensuring that the final stages of life are as peaceful and meaningful as possible.
If you or a loved one is dealing with advanced heart disease, it is important to explore these care options early.
While they may not offer a cure, they can provide invaluable support and quality time, making a difficult journey more manageable and compassionate.
Contact Lightways today at 815.740.4104 for additional information.
