Edinburgh Napier University

  Palliative care refers to treatment and care delivered when the disease/illness is not responsive to curative treatment. The World Health Organization defines palliative care as ‘an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing the problems associated with life threatening illness, through the prevention and relief of suffering by means of an early identification and impeccable assessment and treatment of pain and other problems, physical, psychosocial and spiritual’ (WHO 2004). Palliative care and treatment strategies can also be used to manage the side effects of intrusive treatments within curative treatment. Often associated in the mind as being related to oncology and cancer, palliative care can be delivered to people experiencing any form of life-threatening illnesses such as chronic heart failure, respiratory disease, and neurological disorders such as motor neurone disease and multiple sclerosis. Palliative care can also be distinguished from end-of-life care. In the UK end-of-life care is written into clinical pathways concerned with the final days and hours of a person’s life (DoH 2008; LCP 2008). The key aims of these care pathways are to improve quality of care of the dying in the last hours and days of life and to improve knowledge related to the process of dying.