Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Palliative Care Concepts In Medical Treatment

By Edward William

Palliative care concepts in medical treatment generally revolve around the idea that the sort of care given to the sick will mainly be supportive in nature. What that means is that the disease is not normally looked at from the perspective of healing illness but rather of lessening the severity of the symptoms of the illness.

Basically, all different types of medical care and treatment that have as their aim the alleviation of pain and suffering (i. E. "making the patient comfortable") will be the goal of just about any palliative care regime. The idea of palliative relief is seen quite often in the hospice movement where the general goal is to help the sick person be as comfortable as possible.

Rather than to cure any disease or illness, the idea is to eliminate pain, and there are generally two different types of palliative care. As was said above there is the kind of treatment aimed at alleviating pain or suffering that is found in a hospice, which is usually given to those who are nearing the end of their life.

Additionally, non-hospice based palliative care is available and is generally extended to those who may not be nearing the end of their lives but who do require concerted efforts to help relieve pain. Classical terms for such medical treatment usually have to do with what physicians and other healthcare professionals call "supportive care."

With supportive care, the idea will be to improve a patient's near and long-term quality of life instead of expending scarce resources aimed at finding or instituting a cure or treatment regimen that has the effect of standing in as a cure.

Palliative care can make a lot of sense when a patient has an illness or disease that is considered incurable. Normally, its delivery is centered on a patient and his or her relationship with an acute care hospital that can bring together an interdisciplinary approach to addressing all of the ills that have befallen the patient. The movement toward palliative care is recognized as a discipline among physicians these days, also.

However the movement came about, there can be no denying that physicians and health professionals today are looking at the relief of pain and debilitation surrounding a possibly incurable or chronic disease has being a top priority. Rather than expand and possibly waste a great many resources looking for a cure in the short term, doctors and others are instead looking to improve the quality of life for a patient who may not benefit from any near-term cure solution.

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