Palliative care
(Redirected from Dying patient)
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This area of medicine which deals with symptom control and is non-curative. Essentially, patients who are dying and lengthening life takes second place to making sure they are comfortable. A multidisciplinary team approach is a huge part of it. Some say "Palliative care is helping dying people to live".
Key conditions
- Prognostication - working out how long someone has to live.
- Pain control
- Respiratory problems
- Nausea and vomiting
- Incontinence
"Mrs Jones, I'm afraid I have some bad news..."
Learning to break and discuss bad news is a key part of palliative care. We don't think its really the thing to learn out of a book; get together with a mate, and try telling them seriously a few times "I'm afraid we have the test results back, and I'm afraid they show that you have Leukaemia." Use your brains, be sensitive and you'll learn a lot. You can find some more tips on this website.