Palliative care in the final days of life: "They were expecting it at any time." Caring for dying patients presents unique challenges for healthcare providers. Patients in their final days need adequate symptom management, and families need support as death approaches. Care does not end with the death of the patient but continues through death pronouncement, family notification, discussion of autopsy, and bereavement. This article discusses skills in these and related areas in the context of one man's death, highlighting the different perspectives of families and clinicians. A goal of palliative care is to enable a patient to die peacefully and comfortably. Achieving such competency may help to relieve clinician stress in caring for dying patients. Hallenbeck J. JAMA. 2005 May 11;293(18):2265-71. Read more. PubMed Abstract: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=15886382&query_hl=16 Credit: PubMed, developed by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) at the National Library of Medicine (NLM).

Department of Pain Medicine and Palliative Care Beth Israel Medical Center, New York City ©2005 Continuum Health Partners, Inc. www.stoppain.org/palliative_care