Palliative Care

I was a bit nervous at the start of this week. This week was the devoted 'Palliative Care Week' - for the entire week, I was assigned to the Palliative Care team at SCGH. Now Palliative Care is (for those who don't know) the care of those patients who are getting towards the end of their lives. These patients are suffering from diseases that are incurable and are not being treated with a curative intent.

So I followed the team around, learnt about what they did, learnt about analgesia regimes etc. My head was full of doubts. How do I talk to someone who knows they are going to die in a matter of weeks? How do I bring up the subject of death? How can I provide reassurance to them when both of us know that there is NO HOPE for the future? What kind of doctor wants to deal with patients that never get better? Knowing next to nothing about Palliative Care (other than that it was for people who were going to die), you can imagine I was a little tentative about the whole thing.

All of my fears were unfulfilled as I discovered that Palliative Care is one of the most wonderful specialties that exists. The people who work in the area are, by nature, totally understanding and helpful to everyone (including students ;) ). The patients are wonderful - having accepted death, most of them are starting to get onto the important things in life - repairing old relationship rifts, sorting out their affairs, getting wills organised, spending quality time with loved ones. They are inspiring in the way they stare the abyss in the face and still are determined to make every minute on earth count. I learnt a lot about life from them.

Tags: Medical