Palliative care

Today we had an introduction into palliative care by Dr. LaDelfa.

Often, in medicine, we are called to support individuals through extremely ill health - and often we focus on trying to stall, postpone, or even prevent death. As physicians, though, we can sometimes play an even more important, kinder, and helpful role - that of facilitating a dignified and comfortable death.

Dr. LaDelfa highlighted some of the key elements of end of life care.

1. Provide effective symptom management

2. Help restore a patient's sense of control over their own life

3. Provide patients with the opportunity to deal with their existential concerns (psychological, religious)

4. Help patients feel relieved from their physical, financial, and emotional burdens

5. Provide patients with (or facilitate) time to engage in discussions with their families and friends to affirm their lives - that they had meaning, that they experiences successes, experienced love.

Please see here for a wonderful essay written by Atul Gawande in the New Yorker on "Letting Go" - on how liberating, for patients and providers alike, the experiences of death and dying can be when we focus on quality of life rather than quantity. I feel as though this should be required reading for all medical practitioners!