Palliative care represents some sort of an exclusive providing of medical care that is intended to help people with serious diseases. It emphasizes on ensuring the betterment of a human life instead of treating the disease itself. Although such care can bring patient relief and support to some patients, more and more people consider that palliative care is not necessarily for the best. Critics say that it can postpone the major treatments, it may steal hope, and even bring about emotional stress to both the family and the patient.

The sense among many people is that comfort-centered healthcare is a kind means of dealing with end-of-life symptoms. Nonetheless, we should ask ourselves questions as to whether such a strategy is in the best interest of the patient. In this blog, we are going to explore some of the negative aspects to this approach, and this will shed some light on what the approach lacks as well as assist the families to make better decisions.

Key Points:

• Palliative care can result into the interruption of curative interventions.
• There may be the wrong interpretation by the families.
• It can both touch the emotions of the patient and loved ones.

How Does Palliative Care Affect the Recovery Chances?

A key issue, though, with the medical care that is based on comfort is the fact that it is commonly confused with curative treatment. The attention is increasingly on alleviating pain, more than any attempt to rid oneself of the disease. Such practice may be significant in some cases; however, in some other cases, it makes doctors and patients take the option to refuse potentially life-saving or health-supporting interventions, as a result of which they fail to make a difference.

As an example, we may take a patient with a diagnosed advanced cancer. The health care professionals may recommend the comfort-oriented approach instead of aggressive chemotherapy or participation in new clinical trials. At first sight, it will appear rather beneficial; however, the question should be this one: what if other treatments were to bring about a possibility of getting better? Choosing symptom-oriented care prematurely may deprive a person of alternative treatment that could have saved their lives or led to relief.

Table 1: The difference between Palliative Care and Curative Treatment Goal

Factor	Palliative Care	Curative Treatment
Primary Goal	Comfort and symptom relief	Eliminate disease or prolong life
Treatment Aggressiveness	Low	High
Focus	Quality of life	Survival and disease control
Duration	Often long-term till the end of life	Depends on treatment effectiveness

Note: A treatment plan must be selected after discussing all given options.

The families are usually unaware about all the possible care options and can turn to comfort-oriented care too easily. This may cause regrets in future and most especially in cases whereby it may turn out there had been forms of medical interventions that one could make use of which were not looked into.

Is Hospice Nurse Quitting on Living?

It is not uncommon to experience a feeling that there is no hope when one hears that he/she is going to be under palliative care. To many, the healthcare system seems to be quitting. Such an emotional response does not only affects the patients but also their family and friends.

Consider a case of an old patient with such hypertrophic heart disease, like heart failure. The hospital provides palliative care as opposed to prescribing surgery or ending medication. Is it that there is nothing left to do? The family may ask. The message is usually perceived negatively, even in case it is not the intention.

In addition, there is optimism, which is a healing tool. When there is a high level of desire to fight, the patients tend to live longer or improve with the treatment. However, by introducing palliative care at an early stage, one may deprive a person of his/her will to fight.

Note, hope is not only a feeling but is also a mental medicine.

Abandonment of aggressive treatment early enough may result in the patients losing their spirits to continue. This emotional impact cannot be ignored when discussing why palliative care is bad.

Does Families Face Pressure in Palliative Care?

Another reason why palliative care is bad in some cases is the emotional burden it places on families. Although this care is supposed to assist a person to attain peace and is encouraging, families become stressed and confused.

They have to make hard decisions at a rapid rate, which many families are expected to do as in stopping life-extending treatment or taking the patient home under hospice. This may bring about guilt and confusion. A mother with a terminal condition, a child may question themselves, whether they are sending her off too early. Such thoughts may continue bearing in mind even after the loved one is dead.

Table 2: Experiences in the Family During Provision of Various Types of Care

Care Type	Decision-Making Pressure	Emotional Guilt	Satisfaction with Outcome
Palliative Care	High	Often High	Mixed
Active Treatment	Moderate	Variable	Sometimes Higher

Also, there is a lack of full-fledged emotional support of the caregivers provided by all palliative care programs. Families believe they are left alone or not knowing what is going on. Much more is required to improve communication between nursing staff and families in the process of planning palliative care.

Is Palliative Care capable of reducing quality of life?

Although the goal of palliative care is to enhance the quality of life, it does not always achieve its goal. Drugs like pain relievers, as an example, might lead to dizziness, loss of concentration or even loss of agility. Such secondary effects may considerably affect the capacity of a patient to experience the last days of his life.

Take an example of the use of such strong painkillers administered to a patient to relieve pain due to cancer. The pain could disappear, but one could be feeling too sleepy or disoriented to talk to loved ones. It has the possibility of breaking the human connection when it is needed the most.

Moreover, it is typical of a person under palliative care to have restricted movements. The patients can be confined in bed, placed on a limited diet, or even be prevented to do their daily tasks. They might lose their sense of identity and feel they are losing their dignity and activity when it comes to their role as the community officers.

At times, aggressive symptom control even turns out to be a completely opposite phenomenon, with more pain than relief. This is particularly because of the failure to select medicines carefully and the failure to consider the mental conditions of the patient.

Are there Alternative Options of Better Palliative Care?

Among the greatest criticisms of palliative care is the possibility that it would not be the only/ best solution. Most of the new methods involve a more neutral way of treating and that is, they provide comfort but not an end to the option of recovery.

As an example, integrative medicine entails traditional therapy, as well as treatment that focuses on comfort. This way, the patients will be able to keep on struggling with their illness, but also deal with pain and emotional tension. Other hospitals even apply wellness coaches or therapists to take care of the spirit of patients, along with their bodies.

Comparison Table- Between Palliative and Integrative Care

Feature	Palliative Care	Integrative Care
Focus	End-of-life comfort	Healing and comfort
Includes curative option	Rarely	Often
Holistic support	Sometimes	Always
Family involvement	Moderate	High

Such a trend could easily change once families are given better information through education and given chances to explore alternative options available to them; they would opt to take the more promising courses instead of directing their attention to palliative care.

Donning caps: It is not appropriate to always think that palliative care is the only direction to follow-inquire about integrative or hybrid care paths.

Conclusion

Although palliative care has its role in the contemporary medicine, one may not speak of it as something that is not subject to criticism. It has legitimate concerns on how it can disrupt curative treatment, decrease hope, cause emotional pressure on the family members, and even decrease the quality of life decreases.

Patients and families are to be given all the possible information on what palliative care entails and the other alternatives that could be in place. All patients are individuals and they need to be treated as such, considering their particular wishes, aims, and needs. It’s time we have honest conversations about why palliative care is bad in some cases, so people can make better, more informed choices.

FAQ’s

1. How is palliative care going to affect the future of a patient?
The palliative care concentrates on comfort, and this factor might lead to the likelihood of avoiding life-prolonging treatments.

2. Is it possible to discontinue palliative care?
It is possible, yes, but the patients have their right to quit the process of palliative care and to step forward into active treatment.

3. Why do some people consider palliative care as the process of giving up?
Since the topic of it does not center more on healing but comforting people are likely to believe that there is no hope left.

4. Does palliative care apply to any serious illness?
Not always. There are patients who can be treated better with hybrid or integrative treatment.

5. Are all the patients in palliative care treated the same?
No. Support is facility, region and dependent on the approach of the care team which can influence the experience.