Introduction to Ambulatory Palliative Care

Providing palliative care in the ambulatory care setting.

Palliative care that provides specialized attention to pain and symptom management is important for patients with cancer. Palliative care aims to reduce pain and other symptoms through an interdisciplinary approach involving physicians, nurses, social workers, and other members of the healthcare team. Families are included in care planning. Patients and families benefit from the availability of...

Barriers to Palliative Care.

BACKGROUND: Palliative care is received by a small number of patients with terminal illness, most of them with cancer. METHODS: Data are reviewed and evaluated that relate to the barriers and problems that limit access of patients to appropriate palliative and/or hospice care. RESULTS: Palliative care generally is not well integrated into the health care system. Access is limited, and many heal...

Palliative Care in Neonatal Intensive Care Units: Challenges and Solutions

Palliative care is a series of actions aiming to offer support to parents and their infants in order to improve their quality of life. Despite optimal outcomes, the provision of palliative care for infants and achieving these outcomes may be hardly feasible. The present study aimed to investigate the barriers to palliative care and gain insight into the solutions. Accordingly, the obstacles wer...

Palliative care symposium: promoting joint palliative care.

Dr Lesley Colvin (Senior Lecturer in Anaesthesia, Western General Hospital, Edinburgh) discussed the challenges of pain management in patients with a history of addiction. Similar to other chronic conditions, substance misuse often follows a relapsing course. Pain is a frequently associated comorbidity. Mortality rates are high but can be reduced by successful methadone maintenance programmes, ...

Transitioning from acute care to ambulatory care.