Integrated, collaborative palliative care in heart failure: the St. George Heart Failure Service experience 1999-2002.

Background: Chronic heart failure (HF) is the only heart condition increasing in prevalence and is primarily a condition of aging. This condition has outcomes worse than many cancers; however, patients are often denied the benefits of palliative care with its important emphasis on symptom management, spirituality, and emotional health and focus on family issues.

Aim: To describe the development of a model of an integrated, consultative, palliative care approach within a comprehensive HF community-focussed disease management program.

Cardiorespiratory nurses' perceptions of palliative care in nonmalignant disease: data for the development of clinical practice.

Nurses lack a comprehensive body of scientific knowledge to guide the palliative care of patients with nonmalignant conditions. Current knowledge and practice reveal that nurses in many instances are not well prepared to deal with death and dying. Focus groups were used in an exploratory study to examine the perceptions of palliative care among cardiorespiratory nurses (n = 35).

Synergizing acute care and palliative care to optimise nursing care in end-stage cardiorespiratory disease.

Advances in the practice of medicine and nursing science have increased survival for patients with chronic cardiorespiratory disease. Parallel to this positive outcome is a societal expectation of longevity and cure of disease. Chronic disease and the inevitability of death creates a dilemma, more than ever before, for the health care professional, who is committed to the delivery of quality care to patients and their families.