PROVIDING PALLIATIVE NURSING CARE FOR PATIENS BASED ON BUDDHIST ETHICS

Abstract

          The objectives of this dissertation are; 1) to study about palliative care, 2) to study the principles of Buddhist ethics, 3) to integrate the palliative care with Buddhist ethics, and 4) to propose a new body of knowledge and model on “palliative care based on Buddhist ethics”. The data of this qualitative research were collected from the Tipitaka, documents and involved research papers, and in-depth.

The results were as follow:

1.  Palliative care is performed to patients suffered from incurable diseases such as cancer, HIV, or chronic end stage of diseases as well as elders suffered from diseases. Thus, the goal of palliative care is creating the best quality of life through holistic care in both physical and mental dimensions.
2. The Buddhist ethics complying with virtue, morality, and ethics in the nursing profession are Four Sublime States of Mind, Four Principles of Service, and Three Common Characteristics. These Buddhist principles can be used as the guidelines in both physical and mental dimensions  for generating holistic care.
3. In palliative care, the Buddhist principles of Four Sublime States of Mind and Four Principles of Service can be integrated in palliative patients' physical care dimension and the Three Common Characteristics for mental care dimension.
4. The new body of knowledge in providing palliative care for patients based on Buddhist ethics can be concluded in a “LAW Model”. L represents “Loving Kindness”, A is for “Altruism”, and W is “Wisdom”. It’s considered as the “law of happiness” obtained from the integration of Buddhist ethics to solve problem holistically and help patients passing away with human dignity at the final period of their life.