Abstract

September 2003

Section CE Clinical Essentials

Unlike curative care, which focuses on the disease process, palliative care focuses on the patient, striving to minimize the patient's burden and maximize the patient's quality of life. A distinguishing feature of palliative care is that it openly acknowledges dying as part of living and does not consider death an enemy. This chapter describes the general concepts of palliative care, reviews the clinical skills needed to provide competent palliative care to patients who are chronically ill or near the end of life, and discusses some of the challenging legal and ethical issues that are often encountered in palliative and terminal care, such as limiting treatment and requests for assisted suicide. Figures compare former and current models of the relationship between curative and palliative care, and illustrate predictable versus unpredictable prognoses in different diseases. Tables list leading causes of death in the United States and compare hospice and palliative care. A sidebar describes palliative care information and resources available on the Internet. This chapter has 46 references.

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