Surgeon, Intensivist, Health Care Ethics Consultant Veterans Affairs Maryland Health Care System Baltimore, MD
Disclosure(s):
Preeti R. John, HEC-C, MD, MPH: No relevant financial relationship(s) to disclose.
Palliative care relieves suffering of patients and their families who are facing life-threatening illness through early identification, assessment, and treatment of physical, psychosocial, and spiritual problems. Palliative care involves more than the provision of high-quality end-of-life care. The ICU environment is complex, in continuous flux, and requires collaboration among multiple disciplines. In addition to providing organ support and restoring physical health, ICU clinicians benefit from training and expertise in primary palliative care skills including symptom assessment and management, communication about prognosis and potential treatment options, incorporation of patients’ values and goals into shared decision-making, and transitions in goals of care.
Learning Objectives:
Distinguish between primary palliative care and specialty palliative care, discuss the three conceptual approaches for providing palliative care in the ICU, and identify ICU patients who would benefit most from specialty palliative care
Identify ways in which ICU clinicians can use training in primary palliative care skills to optimize ICU care and use evidence-based strategies for integrating palliative care in the ICU to optimize multiprofessional collaboration and ethical decision-making while supporting patients and families
Describe best practices and literature updates on provision of primary palliative care in various ICU settings
