Teaching palliative care in the intensive care unit: how to break the news.

Background: Palliative care education is often lacking in graduate medical education curricula. Studies show that many physicians are uncomfortable discussing end-of-life issues with patients and providing palliative care to dying patients and their families. We used a case-based approach to improve resident confidence in delivering bad news, discussing poor prognoses, explaining the dying process, and providing palliative care in the intensive care unit.

The role of palliative care at the end of life.

The goal of palliative care is to relieve the suffering of patients and their families by the comprehensive assessment and treatment of physical, psychosocial, and spiritual symptoms experienced by patients. As death approaches, a patient's symptoms may require more aggressive palliation. As comfort measures intensify, so should the support provided to the dying patient's family.