Tag: EOL
We're Bad at Death. Can We Talk?
Despite growing recognition that more care isn't necessarily better care, particularly at the end of life, many Americans still receive an enormous dose of medicine in their final days. On average, patients make 29 visits... read more
Integrating Advance Care Planning into Practice
Advanced respiratory diseases progress over time and often lead to death. As their condition worsens, patients may lose medical decision making ability. Advance care planning (ACP) is a process in which patients receive information... read more
Early Palliative Care in Advanced Illness
As the on-call pulmonary critical care fellow, I listened to a family member plead with me to "do right by Mama." The emergency department team consulted me for possible intensive care unit (ICU) admission on a... read more
Pricey Technology Is Keeping People Alive Who Don’t Want to Live
As an ICU physician, I’ve used technologies like breathing machines and feeding tubes to save lives that would have been lost just a few decades earlier. But I’ve also seen the substantial costs, both human and financial,... read more
Learning to talk about death should start early in doctors' careers
At first glance, physicians’ poor understanding of death and the process of dying is baffling, since they are supposed to be custodians of health across the lifespan. Look deeper, though, and it may reflect less the attitudes... read more
Never Stop Caring
I read with interest the piece by Wilson et al regarding their examination of end-of-life care patterns in hospitalized patients on their vascular surgery practice in Oregon. I applaud the authors for examining their practices... read more
5 ways to improve care at the End of Life
These days it is much more common for people to live longer with multiple chronic conditions, and we have the technology to prolong life as death approaches. End-of-life care is fragmented, intensive, and costly - and patients’... read more
Experiences and Expressions of Spirituality At the End of Life in the ICU
Family members and clinicians consider spirituality an important dimension of end-of-life care. The 3 Wishes Project invites and supports the expression of myriad forms of spirituality during the dying process in the ICU.... read more
How nurses support families of ICU patients towards the end of life
Researchers gathered evidence on how nurses care for patients and their families in intensive care when life-sustaining treatment is withdrawn. The included studies explored the care of the family before, during and after... read more
