Acute Medicine | Palliative care | Recognising your own limitations in symptom management

Recognising your own limitations in symptom management
Session overview
Description
This session discusses how being aware of your own skills and limitations can improve symptom management and care for patients at the end of life.

This session was reviewed by Richard Kitchen and last updated in September 2021.

Learning objectives
By the end of this session you will be able to:

• explain some of the key pressures felt by professionals in coping with symptom management in patients facing the end of life
• describe how a professional's individual beliefs, values and personal coping strategies can impact on, or influence, patient care
• describe the responsibilities of professionals to demonstrate self-awareness of their own limitations in symptom management, and to know when to seek help and support
• recognise some of the personal skills that help the professional manage themselves and take care of their own well-being

Patients facing the end of life have multiple physical, social and emotional needs that require multi-professional teamwork. No one individual can be expected to have the personal and professional skills and knowledge to provide all aspects of symptom management by themselves.

Even experienced specialists meet with complex or uncommon symptom management problems that are not easily resolved, and indeed may not have any solution.

Within health and social care there can be a pressure upon professionals from an expectation that they 'should' be able to 'do' everything and solve every symptom management and care problem - an attitude that is not useful, either for professionals or patient.