What is palliative medicine?

Palliative medicine is the discipline of comprehensive and integrated treatment and care for patients and their families who have failed to respond to treatment and whose survival is limited (including malignant as well as non-oncologic, e.g., when malignancy is diagnosed at an advanced stage, chronic congestive heart failure at an advanced stage, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease at an end stage, etc.). The goal of palliative medicine is to help end-stage patients and families achieve the best quality of life possible. She achieves this goal through analgesia, control of various symptoms, and reduction of mental, psychological, and spiritual suffering. It is a discipline that aims to alleviate suffering and pursue peace and dignity at the end of life, and is a discipline that combines medical expertise with humanism. Specifically, it is divided into three broad areas: symptom control, communication, and support for families. In symptom control, in addition to the familiar medication methods to deal with pain, constipation, insomnia, depression and other symptoms of terminal patients, we emphasize other methods than medication to help control symptoms, such as physiotherapy, aromatherapy, painting therapy, music therapy, etc. In symptom assessment, besides analyzing the physical causes of symptoms, we also emphasize the spiritual and psychosocial causes of symptoms. Therefore, the presence and role of social workers, volunteers and other non-medical people are particularly important when dealing with symptoms. Communication should be the most important after the symptoms are controlled. The patient, the family, the palliative medicine team, the patient’s friends, all these elements depend on “communication” to achieve smoothness and consistency between and within them. In palliative medicine, every member of the team is involved in the burden of communication. Support for the family: Families are in great pain! They do not want to let go of their loved ones, they have to work and take care of them, they are under financial pressure, they are ethically tested… Therefore, families of end-stage patients are a group that needs help, mainly through individual communication, family meetings, material assistance and continuous attention during the bereavement period after the death of the patient, in order to help the grieving family members The aim is to help the grieving family members to overcome their grief and start a new life. This profession is in its infancy in China. As society has progressed, the need for this component has come to the forefront, from medical professionals to patients and families. People go from not being able to afford to see a doctor to finding a “good hospital”, but they find out helplessly that the “good hospital” can’t cure all diseases. When death is ahead, how can we make it mean more than just pain? As the patient’s family members are so desperately hoping: we know that life is indeed irrevocable, so please make him/her feel better! Suffer less! The medical staff is often helpless: I have used all the knowledge I have learned, just infection, oxygen, anti-tumor, but the disease has progressed to this point, it is impossible not to suffer. The doctors had done everything they could, but the patient was still struggling with pain. This seems to be the default state of a terminal patient. This certainly should not be the case! At this point in time when patients, families, and doctors are confused, palliative medicine is the way to go! Palliative medicine helps patients and their families to alleviate physical as well as mental, psychological and social relationship suffering in many ways, in the hope that patients can go in peace and the families left behind can have peace of mind. With regard to demand, there are now so many patients diagnosed with terminal illnesses every day, or already facing death, many patients should be introduced to palliative medicine services, but the actual demand is pathetic, the reason is that the profession has not been recognized and recognized by the medical profession and the private sector, the general public still only think that “sick, go to the hospital,” there is no The general public still thinks that “if you have a disease, go to the hospital”, not realizing that “the treatment is different at different stages of the disease”. As a result, many terminally ill patients spend their last, but most precious, moments in intensive care units and emergency rooms, in panic and pain, saying goodbye to their loved ones. This requires a relentless effort to promote this discipline among the population. From the perspective of medical professionals, patients and families, palliative medicine is a haven for terminally ill patients and their families to reduce their suffering.