Palliative Care and End-of-Life Issues

Palliative care focuses on relieving suffering and improving quality of life for people with serious illness, and its integration into standard medical practice — including intensive care units — has become a central concern in health systems research. Scholars examine how and when clinicians communicate prognoses to patients and families, how advance care planning shapes treatment decisions near the end of life, and what determines whether a person's final period is experienced as dignified and coherent with their own values. Evidence increasingly suggests that earlier involvement of palliative care teams can reduce unnecessary interventions and lower health care costs without compromising — and often improving — patient and caregiver outcomes. Open questions remain around how to tailor communication strategies across cultural contexts, how to support family members who bear much of the burden of end-of-life decision-making, and how health systems can align institutional incentives with the goal of a good death.

Works

157,387

Total citations

1,425,976

Keywords

Palliative CareEnd-of-LifeAdvance Care PlanningFamily PerspectivesQuality of DyingCommunication Strategies