While caring for a patient with terminal cancer of the throat, the nurse is approached by the family and is informed that they have already spoken to the physician about taking the patient home. The nurse immediately coordinates discharge planning and informs the family about which supportive service?

Explanation

• Hospice care emphasizes comfort and support for the terminally-ill patient and their family rather than curative measures. Hospice care neither prolongs life nor hastens death, but rather improves the quality of a patient's last days.

• Patients with terminal cancer need palliative care rather than curative therapy or interventions. It is one of the major goals of hospice care services that the terminally ill patient is free of pain and other symptoms which do not allow them to maintain optimum quality of life.

• The other options would be also helpful, but these are not the most supportive facilities or agencies that will provide services in meeting the patient’s immediate needs during a terminal illness.

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