Cancer Patients Receiving Hospice Care - Essay Example

Cancer Patients Receiving Hospice Care Introduction Generally, cancer is a group of diseases that involve abnormal cell growth and the abnormal cell growth has the potential to spread to other body parts. The cancer condition is also referred to as a malignant tumor, but this does not mean all tumors are cancerous. On the other hand, hospice care is the kind of care that is offered to someone by a team of healthcare professionals and volunteers towards their end of life. In this case, they hospice care involves the provision of medical, psychological and spiritual support. With regard to cancer patients, hospice care is offered to particular patients who are expected to live for six months or less. Unfortunately, it was predicted that in America there will be an estimated 1,658,370 new cancer cases and 589,430 cancer deaths in the U.S (Cancer.org, 2015). This prediction emphasizes the importance of hospice care in the U.S. In 2012, it was estimated the 1.5 to 1.6 million patients hospice services. Moreover, of the patients diagnosed with cancer who accessed three or more days in a week has been growing since 2007 and is still on the increase. As a result, more of these services may be needed in future given the increasing prevalence of cancer cases in America as the number that accessed the services was only 53% of all cancer patients (Cancer.org, 2015). Most importantly, there is an increasing need to introduce new means of intervention for incurable cancer cases. Despite that the hospice care is made to improve the quality of life for the patient, it has the problem in that sometimes the doctor, the patient or the doctor may resist it because it means that you have given up the hope that you may have had of living. This reasoning is misleading because once one gets better or the cancer goes into recession, one can stop the hospice care and join a cancer treatment program (Mayer & Daly, 2014). However, it is always difficult as to who is going to start the conversation about joining a hospice care. In the end, either the doctor may suggest that the treatment is not working or may observe that you have run out of treatment options. A family member may start the conversation or at times the patient may ask for the treatment hospice program. Regardless of who starts the conversation, it is the weakness of the hospice program, the implication is that one has given up hope of living and this has prevented many patients from starting hospice services which are of great importance to the patient. Even though hospice care has several approaches depending on the patient and the condition of the disease, there is still to establish new means for intervention so that cancer patients have alternatives. Health professionals agree that prevention of cancer may be the only way the disease can be controlled. Much as prevention-focused intervention serves to reduce the prevalence of the disease in the future, intervention programs for the immediate problems are mandatory. In this regard, the main intervention program for cancer patients so far has been hospice care. This program is very effective for providing spiritual, family and pain and symptoms control cares for cancer patients. In spite of its effective, the fact that cancer cases are on the rise and the weakness of the implications it has for cancer patients and their family call for rethinking in search for new intervention mechanisms. Background of the Study According to World Health Organization (WHO), Cancers figure were among the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in 2012 and were expected to rise by 70% in the following two decades. In 2008, the WHO estimated that there were 12.7 million new cancer cases and 7.6 million cancer deaths worldwide. Overall, the incidence rates per 10000 for the 1998-2002 varied widely, from 86.3 in Algeria which had the lowest rate for men to 453.3 in the U.S blacks (Jemal, Center, DeSantis & Ward, 2010). In women, the rate varied nearly fourfold from 80.3 in Algeria which recorded the lowest among the 45 cites selected, to 302.3 in the U.S non-Hispanic whites. Cancer is a major public health problem in the world but more so in the U.S. In specific, the American Cancer Society reported that, in 2014, for every four deaths in the U.S one is caused by cancer. From the data by the Society, the overall cancer incidence rate was 23% lower among women as compared to men in 2013. Also, for the data between 2006 and 2010, the rate of incidence for men decreased by 0.6% while that of women remained stable (Globocan.iarc.fr, 2015). The National Cancer Institute 2011/2012 reported the death rates for four of the most common cancers, namely, prostate, female breast, lung and colorectal, and for all cancers combined was on the decline. Specifically, the rate of cancer incidence had declined significantly since 1998. Again, the report recorded that the length of survival for all cancers combined had increased. Actually, the number of people surviving five years after diagnosis was 66.7 percent as at 2003 which was the then most recent follow-up report for the five-year survival index. The report called for more intervention measures to be adopted alongside the hospice care so as to attain the 2020 objective of a five-year survival of 72.8%. Overall, the death rate due to cancer in U.S rose in the 20th century and was highest in 1991 when it hit 215.1 deaths per 100000 populations (Who.int, 2015). The increase was attributed to a tobacco epidemic that increased the lung cancer cases. Throughout the last two decades, however, the cancer death rate had declined to 171.8 in 2010. This decline was attributed to the advances in prevention, early detection methods and treatment that included hospice care and a comprehensive tobacco control program. Hospice care was introduced in the 19th century when cancer incidence was on the rise. Hospice was authorized as a formal Medicare in the US in 1980’s. In the 1990s, hospice became an official subspecialty which included physicians in the care of hospice patients. In 2012, it was approximated that, the same proportion as that of 2011, 35.5% of hospice patients died or were discharged within the seven days of admission. A smaller proportion of patients in hospice programs who died or were discharged within the first 14 days were recorded in 2012 as compared to 2011. Also, approximately the same proportion of hospice patients under hospice for more than 180 days of 11.4%-11.5% was recorded in 2012 as in 2011 (Globocan.iarc.fr, 2015). These findings draw attention to the need for effort either to make the hospice program more effective or try other intervention programs so as to deal with the above situation accordingly. References Mayer, P. A., & Daly, B. J. (2014). CPR and hospice: Incompatible goals, irreconcilable differences. Progress in Palliative Care. Jemal, A., Center, M., DeSantis, C., & Ward, E. (2010). Global Patterns of Cancer Incidence and Mortality Rates and Trends. Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention, 19(8), 1893-1907. doi:10.1158/1055-9965.epi-10-0437 Who.int,. (2015). WHO | Cancer. Retrieved 6 March 2015, from Cancer.org,. (2015). Cancer Facts & Figures 2014. Retrieved 6 March 2015 Globocan.iarc.fr,. (2015). Fact Sheets by Cancer. Retrieved 6 March 2015 Read More