Caring for Hindu patients at the end-of-life: A narrative review.
Palliat Support Care
; : 1-9, 2024 Oct 03.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-39360707
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES:
This paper reviews the existing literature to identify specific challenges that may arise in the context of providing palliative and end-of-life (EOL) care for Hindu patients in the physical, psychological, and spiritual domains. We offer practical strategies where appropriate to mitigate some of these challenges. We review how the Hindu faith impacts EOL decision-making, including the role of the family in decision-making, completion of advance directives, pain management, and decisions around artificial nutrition and hydration (ANH) and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).METHODS:
The PubMed, MEDLINE Complete, Cochrane, and Embase databases were searched for articles using the search strings combinations of keywords such as Palliative care, Hindu, Hinduism, End of Life Care, India, Spirituality, and South Asian. Once inclusion criteria were applied, 40 manuscripts were eligible for review.RESULTS:
Our results are organized into the following 4 sections - how Hindu religious or spiritual beliefs intersect with the physical, psychological, and spiritual domains and decision-making at the EOL. SIGNIFICANCE OFRESULTS:
Hindu beliefs, in particular the role of karma, were shown to impact decision-making regarding pain management, ANH and CPR, and advance directive completion. The complexity of Hindu thought leaves a significant role for interpretation and flexibility for individual factors in decision-making at the EOL.
Full text:
1
Database:
MEDLINE
Language:
En
Journal:
Palliat Support Care
Journal subject:
TERAPEUTICA
Year:
2024
Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
United States