ケアをとおして癒し癒されるホスピス緩和ケア : 緩和ケア病棟開設15年の経験から

We established the hospice palliative care unit“Hospice Tokushima”in April, ２００２. It was the first ward in Tokushima prefecture． In order to ease the mental and physical pain of each patient who has a limited life, we have three philosophies. First, we try to provide every possible treatment. Next, we try to improve the quality of life of the patient by respecting the wish of each one as much as possible. Last, we try to help each patient and his or her family to have precious time together. Under these philosophies, we have been alleviating the symptoms of the disease, letting the patient maintain the usual life, respecting individuality of each patient, and taking care of the patient’s family too. As a result, we received a high evaluation in the third J-HOPE study（the Japan Hospice and Palliative care Evaluation study）in２０１３. We investigated mental health of nurses. This investigation revealed that not only each patient but also nurses who took care were healed by palliative care. We suggest that it is important to provide palliative care to all of the patients suffered from various disease as well as cancer.