Unlike most people, Kathy Ann Howard knew well what palliative medicine was. At least, she thought she did.
As a nurse practitioner with St. Tammany Health System’s Palliative Medicine Department, she was familiar with the unique blend of compassion and expertise required of palliative medicine providers. She also knew from experience just how important and uplifting such care is to patients.
Turns out, she knew only half of it.
In January 2022, after her regular mammogram, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Over the months that followed, Howard – who indeed knew the care provider’s perspective – would undergo an unplanned but invaluable crash course in palliative medicine from the patient’s viewpoint at St. Tammany Cancer Center – A Campus of Ochsner Medical Center.
Howard’s cancer is in remission now, and she is back at work. Coincidentally, she works with patients at the same cancer center at which she was treated. The experience has not only made her a better care provider, she said, but it has also reinforced her belief in the beauty of palliative medicine as a whole.
“It was a scary experience, but it was an awesome experience at the same time,” Howard said. “The support and care I received was just wonderful. But also, stepping out of the provider role and being in that patient role and understanding how scary it is when somebody’s giving you bad news – that made me even better at my job.”
In a nutshell, palliative medicine sees trained healthcare professionals work with patients to manage severe chronic conditions with an eye toward maximizing their quality of life.
Such patients run the gamut from a condition standpoint. Sometimes, they’re dealing with terminal diagnoses. But palliative medicine also helps patients with such life-limiting conditions as lupus, multiple sclerosis, heart failure or COPD lead fuller lives.
Howard uses terms such as “comfort care” and “supportive care” in describing what she sees as a way to return a bit of dignity to patients.
“What we do is help patients get to their goals,” she said. “When we sit down and see patients for the first time, whether it’s for a new diagnosis or an old diagnosis with advancing symptoms, we ask the patients, ‘What are your goals? What do you want to do that your disease is preventing you from doing?’
“Sometimes, they say, ‘I want to sit on the porch with my grandkids,’ or, ‘I want to go fishing.’ And we help them with that.”
For some patients, that might mean additional medications. For others, it might mean fewer. Often, it means something else entirely. It all depends on what the patient wants.
“What we’re doing here is not curative, but we’re helping them to meet their goals in their life, and that improves their quality of life.”
And that’s not just anybody talking. It’s someone whose journey has brought them a firsthand view of both sides of the palliative medicine equation – and who is grateful for it.
“It’s really special now taking care of cancer patients, because it feels like this is my way of giving back for all the people who took care of me,” Howard said.
“What we have here is so special,” she continued, talking about St. Tammany Health System’s Palliative Medicine program. “I really feel fortunate to be a part of what we’re doing here with palliative medicine, especially what we’re doing with the cancer center. I want patients to know that we really want to help them to have the best quality of life. We have a great team here and we’re doing really, really good work.”