What is palliative care? How is it different from hospice?

Palliative care understands that providing severe patients with ethical and compassionate care involves treating their sicknesses and supporting them as complete persons.

Fremont, CA: For patients whose doctors predict they have six months or less to live and who prefer to cease receiving treatments that target their illness, such as chemotherapy for cancer, to concentrate on comfort, hospice care is a Medicare-covered benefit. Palliative care, on the other hand, is given alongside curative therapies and is acceptable for persons with severe illnesses at any stage.

Other palliative care professionals have years of experience managing bodily symptoms like nausea and pain. They also find out what matters most to patients by listening to their tales, which is essential. They assist in making challenging medical decisions and dealing with the grief and apprehension that frequently accompany serious illness.

Palliative care understands that providing severe patients with ethical and compassionate care involves treating their sicknesses and supporting them as complete persons.

Palliative care is still a relatively new area. Research at the start of the 1990s revealed severe flaws in the standard of treatment provided to patients with life-threatening diseases. A 1995 study of over 5,000 Americans showed that 50 percent of hospital patients who passed away had had moderate to severe pain in the final weeks of their lives.