HOSPICE PHILOSOPHY OF APPROPRIATE CARE

Course overview

The statement "There is nothing more to be done" should never be applied to the dying patient. Even though there is a time when the medical effort may turn primarily from the arresting of the disease to the relief of symptoms, this stage of treatment, called palliative care, may be every bit as aggressive and determined as curative care. Its aim should be to relieve the patient and his or her family of physical, emotional, spiritual, and social distress and thus to free them to concentrate on the matters of living.