Palliative care

Abstract Palliative care is a specialized area of nursing practice, and also one which embraces all people who are living with a life-limiting or life-threatening illness. The purpose of palliative care is to enable a person and their family or significant others to live as full a life as possible within the constraints of their health condition. Palliative interventions often begin at an early stage of a long-term or life-limiting illness and may be concurrent with active treatment interventions. Palliative care continues until death, and although many palliative care services are delivered by specialist teams, general nurses will also be involved with people in a range of clinical or domestic environments. This chapter discusses the general principles of palliative care and considers how these may be applied in adult nursing practice.