Palliative care
Palliative care is a medical discipline that provides care for people with serious illness[1]. It can be untreatable disease (e.g., diabetes mellitus, HIV, coronary artery disease, generalized malignancy), but it can also be a disease that has a chance of being cured but profoundly affects the patients life (e.g., primary tumor, acute respiratory failure, polytrauma). The goal is to improve the quality of life of the patient and his/her family, bringing relief from the symptoms and stress associated with serious illness. It is provided at any age and at any stage of the disease, even simultaneously with curative treatment.
Palliative team[edit | edit source]
Palliative medicine provides care in the context of bio-psycho-socio-spiritual needs. Considering these components, the care is mainly team-based, with a palliative physician, a palliative nurse, a psychologist, a chaplain, a social worker, and possibly other persons such as a physiotherapist or a pharmacologist, among others.
Graphical representation of the palliative care concept
Types of palliative care[edit | edit source]
In terms of time for terminal illnesses, they are divided into:
- early palliative care - provided concurrently with curative care, especially early in the trajectory of chronic disease,
- advanced palliative care - provided at an advanced stage of the chronic disease trajectory,
- terminal or hospice palliative care - for patients with a survival prognosis of weeks or less,
- bereavement care - care provided generally to the loved ones of the deceased patient, especially in the context of complicated bereavement.
In terms of both level of expertise and symptom load, it is divided into[2]:
- general palliative care - within the competence of the basic discipline involved, indicated whenever a specific disease is diagnosed,
- specialised palliative care - within the competence of a certified palliative care physician in situations where the planning or symptom load exceeds the capabilities of the basic specialty,
- hospice palliative care - for a patient who
In terms of the target group, it can be divided into
- paediatric and
- adult.
In terms of place of delivery, it can be divided into:
- outpatient - provided in palliative care clinics as part of outpatient visits,
- inpatient
- consilient - care provided within palliative team conferences,
- inpatient - care provided to inpatients in a hospital ward specialised in palliative care (a palliative unit),
- hospice
- inpatient - provided to patients with a prognosis of survival of weeks or less in a specialised inpatient hospice unit,
- home - provided in the home to patients with a survival prognosis of weeks or less in the home environment, as part of regular or acute visits by a mobile or home hospice team that visits the patient at home.
References[edit | edit source]
Related sites[edit | edit source]
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ Center of Advance Palliative Care. About Palliative Care [online]. [cit. 2019-07-06 <https://www.capc.org/about/palliative-care/>.
- ↑ SKÁLA, Bohumil, Ondřej SLÁMA and Jiří VORLÍČEK, et al. Palliative care for patients in the terminal stage of illness : recommended and treatment guidelines for general practitioners [online]. Prague : Society of General Medicine, 2011. 24 p. Also available from <https://www.paliativnimedicina.cz/sites/www.paliativnimedicina.cz/files/users/simicek/paliativni-pece-2011pro_pl.pdf>. ISBN 978-80-86998-51-0.
