What is palliative care
Page content
- Palliative care and end-of-life care
- Advance care plan
- Where is palliative care provided?
- Dignified treatment of a deceased person
Palliative care and end-of-life care
Palliative care is active and comprehensive care of a patient with a life limiting illness. Its goal is to relieve suffering and improve quality of life. Palliative care also involves supporting family and friends. Palliative care might be provided for years.
End-of-life care is the last phase of palliative care. It is provided during the last weeks or days of life.
The key aspects in palliative and end-of-life care are relieving pain and other symptoms and responding to physical, social, psychological and spiritual needs. The care is multidisciplinary.
Palliative care is a human right.
Advance care plan
Care approaches and plans made well in advance ensure good care also at the end of life. An advance care plan makes it possible to align the care to the patient’s wishes and provides the physicians and nurses with instructions on how to respond to changing circumstances.
The advance care plan is written by a physician in collaboration with the patient and, if necessary, with the patient’s family members. The plan includes following aspects:
- the patient’s wishes and advance decision
- medical condition and prognosis
- care approach (goals of care)
- limitations of care (procedures that affect the patient adversely)
- family members’ views
- place of care
- party to be consulted, including their contact details
- instructions for sudden worsening of the patient’s condition, including
- pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical treatments and their prescriptions
- assistive devices for alleviating symptoms.
The advance care plan is updated as necessary and whenever an essential change takes place in the patient’s condition.
The advance care plan for end of life must be available for all professionals who participate in the patient's care.
Limitations of care
The decision on care might exclude some treatments that provide no medical benefit for the patient or that affect the patient adversely. Limitation of care does not mean the withdrawal of all care. The patient is given good symptomatic treatment. A natural death is allowed to take place.
The physician makes the decisions on care, but the decisions must be discussed with the patient.
Where is palliative care provided?
The goal is to provide care in a way that takes into account the patient’s wishes and is provided primarily in the location where the patient resides or is otherwise taken care of.
End-of-life care is provided by public and private service providers:
- 24-hour service housing units
- communal housing units
- home care units
- wards of health centers and hospitals.
Specialised palliative care can be provided in a hospital, hospice or, if a hospital-at-home is available, at home or in a housing service unit.
End-of-life care at home
The purpose of end-of-life care at home is to offer the dying person the opportunity to die in a location of their choosing, such as at home or in home-like environment, such as in a housing service unit.
Hospice home care is provided by a hospital-at-home or home nursing.
Hospice home care usually provides the patient with an opportunity to
- contact a nurse round the clock
- home visits by a physician
- transfer to an inpatient ward without a separate referral
- intermittent inpatient care episodes.
More information about palliative care services
Dignified treatment of a deceased person
Palliative care does not end at death. It also involves dignified and respectful treatment of the deceased and provision of support to their family members. Family members have to be provided an opportunity to see the deceased person and say goodbye without a hurry in peaceful and dignified surroundings.
