Faith, Culture and End of Life Care

Faith, Culture, and End of Life Care
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Abstract
According to particular religions, the end of life care has everything to do with bad and good death. The World Health Organization’s description of palliative care emphasizes the need to improve the life quality of the patients as well as their families. To achieve this threshold, caregivers have to incorporate the patient’s psychological as well as spiritual needs in their duty to promote the patients’ well-being. Many individuals and societies alike prepare for death following their cultural and religious upbringing. Therefore, it is of great significance that the practitioners involved in palliative care are sensitive to and appreciate the diverse cultural and religious dispensations of their patients. Even though certain ideas and practices may seem absurd to caregivers, it is not their place to judge the patients’ actions or ideas. What they need to do is ensure the patients are comfortable in their final days on earth; if holding on to their religious or cultural beliefs gives them that, then it must not be respected. It shall be evident from the paper that the palliative caregivers need to strike a critical balance between being compassionate and being professional with specific considerations of a patient’s faith and culture.

Introduction
End of life care refers to the medical attention given to a person, mostly an elderly person, during the last periods before his death. End of life c…