Palliative care refers to an interdisciplinary medical caregiving approach aimed at optimizing quality of life and mitigating suffering among people with serious, complex illness. Within the published literature, many definitions of palliative care exist; most notably, the World Health Organization describes palliative care as "an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing the problems associated with life-threatening illness, through the prevention and relief of suffering by means of early identification and impeccable assessment and treatment of pain and other problems, physical, psychosocial, and spiritual.”
Thanatology or deathlore is the scientific study of death and the losses brought about as a result. It investigates the mechanisms and forensic aspects of death, such as bodily changes that accompany death and the post-mortem period, as well as wider psychological and social aspects related to death. It is primarily an interdisciplinary study offered as a course of study at numerous colleges and universities.
In medicine, specifically in end-of-life care, palliative sedation is the palliative practice of relieving distress in a terminally ill person in the last hours or days of a dying patient's life, usually by means of a continuous intravenous or subcutaneous infusion of a sedative drug, or by means of a specialized catheter designed to provide comfortable and discreet administration of ongoing medications via the rectal route.
Terminal illness or end-stage disease is a disease that cannot be cured or adequately treated and is reasonably expected to result in death of the patient. This term is more commonly used for progressive diseases such as cancer or advanced heart disease than for trauma. In popular use, it indicates a disease that will progress until death with near absolute certainty, regardless of treatment. A patient who has such an illness may be referred to as a terminal patient, terminally ill or simply terminal. There is no standardized life expectancy for a patient to be considered terminal, although it is generally months or less. Life expectancy for terminal patients is a rough estimate given by the physician based on previous data and does not always reflect true longevity. An illness which is lifelong but not fatal is a chronic condition.
Dame Cicely Mary Strode Saunders was an English nurse, social worker, physician and writer. She is noted for her work in terminal care research and her role in the birth of the hospice movement, emphasising the importance of palliative care in modern medicine.
Ira Robert Byock is an American physician, author, and advocate for palliative care. He is founder and chief medical officer of the Providence St. Joseph Health Institute for Human Caring in Torrance, California, and holds appointments as active emeritus professor of medicine and professor of community health and family medicine at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. He was director of palliative medicine at Dartmouth–Hitchcock Medical Center, from 2003–14, and associate director for patient and family-centered care at the affiliated Norris-Cotton Cancer Center.
The Liverpool Care Pathway for the Dying Patient (LCP) was a care pathway in the United Kingdom covering palliative care options for patients in the final days or hours of life. It was developed to help doctors and nurses provide quality end-of-life care, to transfer quality end-of-life care from the hospice to hospital setting. Now discredited, the LCP was widely abused as a 'tick box exercise', with patients being casually assessed as terminal, heavily sedated, and denied water so the diagnosis became self-fulfilling. Hospitals were also provided cash incentives to achieve targets for the number of patients placed on the LCP.
The Journal of Pain and Symptom Management is a monthly peer-reviewed medical journal that was established in 1986. It is a continuation of the PRN Forum, a bimonthly journal published from 1982 to 1985. It is the official journal of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine and the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization. It was formally the official journal of the United States Cancer Pain Relief Committee. The journal covers clinical research related to "the relief of illness burden among patients afflicted with serious or life-threatening illness".
The American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine (AAHPM) is a professional organization for physicians specializing in Hospice and Palliative Medicine, headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Membership is open to all health care providers committed to improving the care of patients with serious or life-threatening illnesses. AAHPM has more than 5,200 members; 82 percent are physicians, 12 percent are nurses or other health care providers and 6 percent are residents or students.
Hospice care is a type of health care that focuses on the palliation of a terminally ill patient's pain and symptoms and attending to their emotional and spiritual needs at the end of life. Hospice care prioritizes comfort and quality of life by reducing pain and suffering. Hospice care provides an alternative to therapies focused on life-prolonging measures that may be arduous, likely to cause more symptoms, or are not aligned with a person's goals.
The Journal of Palliative Medicine is the official academic journal of both the Center to Advance Palliative Care and the Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association, covering aspects of end of life medical care. It is known in the field by the acronym 'JPM.' Until 2008 it was the official journal of the American Association of Hospice and Palliative Medicine.
Diane E. Meier, an American geriatrician and palliative care specialist, is Director of the Center to Advance Palliative care (CAPC) - a national organization dedicated to increasing the number and quality of palliative care programs in the United States. Meier is also Vice-Chair for Public Policy, Professor of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine and Catherine Gaisman Professor of Medical Ethics at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. Meier was founder and Director of the Hertzberg Palliative Care Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine in New York City from 1997 to 2011.
Robert Twycross is a retired British physician and writer. He was a pioneer of the hospice movement during the 1970s, when he helped palliative care gain recognition as an accepted field of modern medicine.
Hospice and palliative medicine is a formal subspecialty of medicine in the United States that focuses on symptom management, relief of suffering and end-of-life care.
Children’s Hospice Association Scotland (CHAS), often referred to as Children's Hospices Across Scotland, is a registered charity that provides the country's only hospice services for children and young people with life-shortening conditions. CHAS offers children’s hospice services, free of charge, to every child, young person and their families who needs and wants them. CHAS was formed in February 1992 by a group of professionals and parents of children with life-shortening conditions who had travelled to England for hospice care. In 2018/19, CHAS supported 465 children with a life-shortening condition, and their siblings, parents and wider families. The care provided is multi-disciplinary, including from doctors, nurses, social workers, pharmacists, play specialists and others. CHAS also employs medical and nursing staff who work in hospitals alongside NHS doctors and nurses.
Palliative Medicine is a peer-reviewed academic journal that publishes papers in the field of medicine. The journal's editor is Catherine Walshe. It has been in publication since 1987 and is currently published by SAGE Publications on behalf of the European Association for Palliative Care.
Timothy E. Quill is an American physician specialising in palliative care at the University of Rochester Medical Center in Rochester, New York. He is also a board member of the Death with Dignity National Center in Portland, Oregon. Quill was the lead plaintiff in a case that eventually reached the Supreme Court of the United States in 1997, Vacco v. Quill, in which the Court decided that a state law against physician-assisted suicide was constitutional.
Deathbed phenomena refers to a range of paranormal experiences claimed by people who are dying. There are many examples of deathbed phenomena in both non-fiction and fictional literature, which suggests that these occurrences have been noted by cultures around the world for centuries, although scientific study of them is relatively recent. In scientific literature such experiences have been referred to as death-related sensory experiences (DRSE). Dying patients have reported to staff working in hospices they have experienced comforting visions.
M. R. Rajagopal is an Indian palliative care physician. He is the founder chairman of Pallium India, a palliative care non-governmental organisation based in Kerala, India. He is often referred to as the 'father of palliative care in India' in honour of his significant contribution to the palliative care scene in India. In 2018, the Indian Government honored Dr M. R. Rajagopal with the Padma Shri award.
Margaret Ruth McCorkle FAAN, FAPOS is an international leader and award-winning pioneer in oncology nursing. She is currently the Florence Schorske Wald Professor of Nursing at the Yale School of Nursing.
