ISSN: 1755-5191

Imaging in Medicine

Palliative Care Medicine Online Journals

Patients dying in hospitals and nursing homes have high rates of unmet needs for physical symptoms, emotional suffering, personal care services, and communication about treatment options. Patients do not suffer alone; during the dying process and after a death, family caregivers experience significant emotional, physical and financial stress. Patients, families, and healthcare providers acknowledge pro-found deficiencies in current end-of-life care, and the need for improved palliative care services that is well matched to the needs of dying patients. Palliative care is an emerging field in United States health care. Palliative care is comprehensive, interdisciplinary care designed to promote quality of life for patients and families living with a serious or incurable illness. Because it is a comprehensive approach to care, providers of palliative care offer expert pain and symptom management, supportive care for emotional and spiritual distress and bereavement support for surviving family. Palliative care includes and expands on the expert care of dying patients found in hospice services. More than two million deaths occur in the United States each year. Depending on the underlying cause of death, a dying patient’s “death trajectory,” or their functional decline prior to death, may follow a brief or prolonged course. The trajectory of illness before death may have a recognizable terminal phase or a more uncertain and unpredictable course prior to death. The underlying cause of death and resulting death trajectory strongly influence the quality of the dying experience, the certainty that a patient is dying and the physician’s ability to discuss options for medical treatment.   

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