Palliative Care Glossary of Terms

Palliative Care Definition- a specialty that cares for patients facing serious illness at any point in their disease/injury trajectory where the focus is  both patient and family. PC helps in 3 major areas:
 

  1. Symptom management:
    1. Assessing and treating distressing symptoms such as  pain and shortness of breath.
  2. Goals of Care:
    1. Helping patients develop a medically realistic plan that is consistent with their goals.
  3. Discharge options:
    1. Help teams, families and patients navigate discharge  options including  hospice vs. palliative care,  rehabilitation and home health.

Primary Palliative Care Definition:
The basic palliative care principles/skills that all clinicians  (not specialty trained in PC) should know.

Examples of primary palliative care principals:
 

  1. Introduce palliative care.
  2. Know eligibility criteria for hospice.
  3. Explore goals of care in a patient with a new serious diagnosis (eg. cancer, stroke, advanced heart failure).
  4. Explore goals of care in a patient that has a change in functional/cognitive status.
  5. Help patient identify a surrogate decision maker if patient loses ability to make his/her decisions.

Specialty Palliative Care Definition:
The specialized principles/skills/care  that clinicians with specialty training in PC provide.
 

  1. Indications to request primary team consult palliative care:
    1. Goals of Care
      1. Explore complex goals of care with patients/families  such as uncertain prognosis or families who have different opinion.,
    2. Symptom Management
      1. Treat persistent uncontrolled symptoms after trial of treatment by primary treating team.
    3. Hospice
      1. Referrals to hospice for patients with complex needs.
    4. Surrogate Decision Makers
      1. Assistance with a plan of care when there is no surrogate and patient lacks capacity to make decisions.

Hospice Definition (different from palliative care):
An insurance benefit for patients whose goal is to maximize quality of life and forego life prolonging therapies who have a life expectancy of less than 6 months based on the natural course of their disease.

Family meetings Definition:
A planned opportunity for  patients, families and providers to dialogue and communicate specific information such as:
 

  1. Breaking bad news-sharing a new diagnosis.
  2. Establish goals of care.
  3. Update family/patient on their condition.
  4. Identify a surrogate when a patient lacks capacity.