Palliative Care Quiz

• A To provide specialist care once disease-modifying treatment has been stopped
• B To provide symptom control once death is expected, rather than earlier in the course of the illness
• C To focus on managing physical symptoms while leaving emotional and social support to other services
• D To ensure patients receive care in a hospice rather than at home once death is expected
• E To improve quality of life by managing symptoms and supporting patients and their loved ones ✓

Explanation

Why E is correct

See What is Palliative Care?. Option E is correct because the aim of palliative care is to optimise a patient's quality of life by managing symptoms and by supporting the patient and their loved ones. It is offered to people with serious, progressive illness and it can be given alongside active treatment of the disease or as the main goal of care when someone is near the end of life. Palliative care means care that relieves symptoms and suffering instead of aiming to cure. It aims to make the patient as comfortable as possible, and the care is holistic, meaning it looks at the physical, psychological and social needs of the whole person. It is not reserved for the last days of life: people should ideally begin to plan their end of life care as soon as they hear that their condition is terminal, and that can be hours, days or months. Palliative care became a speciality in the UK in 1987.

• Aim: optimise quality of life by managing symptoms and supporting the patient and loved ones.
• Approach: holistic, covering physical, psychological and social needs.
• Timing: not reserved for the last days of life, and can be given alongside active treatment.

Why the other options are incorrect

• A. To provide specialist care once disease-modifying treatment has been stopped: Palliative care can be provided alongside disease-modifying treatment, so it does not begin only after such treatment has stopped.
• B. To provide symptom control once death is expected, rather than earlier in the course of the illness: Palliative care can start soon after a serious or terminal diagnosis, not only once death is expected.
• C. To focus on managing physical symptoms while leaving emotional and social support to other services: Palliative care is holistic and includes emotional and social support for the patient and family, not only physical symptom management.
• D. To ensure patients receive care in a hospice rather than at home once death is expected: The aim is quality of life in the preferred setting, not moving every patient to a hospice; home care may be appropriate.

Easy

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