Please help define Palliative Care

[Nursebarebari]

A nurse on a unit I floated to was orienting a new grad and one of their patient on palliative care was de-saturating with O2 2L/m in use. Preceptor was on break, the orientee asked me if the patient can can get the O2 via venti mask, I said yes and that she should ask the doctor for an order. Order was obtained and patient was put on venti mask, sat improved. Preceptor came back from break and was furious, b/c pt was DNR and on palliative care, so we shouldn't have put her on V.M. There was no advance directive that says pt should not be on venti mask. Obviously, my understanding of pallliative care is different from that of the preceptor. SO MY FELLOW NURSES, PLEASE EXPLAIN TO ME WHAT PALLIATIVE CARE MEANS. :uhoh21:

Thanks in advance.

[fluffwad]

It means keeping them comfortable, not to neglect them until they die but it also means not getting too aggressive with interventions or trying to prolong their life.

Without any kind of info on the patient, I can't be specific but it seems to me that increasing the O2 thru the nasal cannula and getting some MSO4 if they're in distress might be more comfortable for the patient than using a venti-mask (which makes some folks anxious / claustrophobic).