Palliative medicine is a special kind of patient/family-centered health care that aims to improve quality of life--focusing on management of pain and other troubling symptoms. It is a team approach that includes medical providers, nurses, dieticians, social workers, chaplains, respiratory therapists, and pharmacists to meet patient/family needs on a variety of levels: physical, emotional and social concerns, spiritual, nutrition, cultural values, and beliefs regardless of the stage of the disease. It may be ordered to support curative treatments, life-prolonging therapies, or end-of-life care with attention to patient goals and wishes.
