Subject(s)
Medical Futility , Palliative Care , Physician-Patient Relations , Humans , Patient Care Team , Patient Participation , Terminal CareSubject(s)
General Surgery , Palliative Care , History, 20th Century , Humans , Palliative Care/history , Physician's RoleABSTRACT
This article examines some of the cognitive and psychologic barriers surgeons possess when attempting to palliate advanced and incurable disease. Despite these barriers, the history of surgery demonstrates numerous eloquent exponents of palliative care philosophy. The considerable body of knowledge and experience in these matters beginning with the work of Dame Cicely Saunders and subsequent medical specialists is presented and offered as a guide for surgeons as their own perspective continues to evolve.
Subject(s)
General Surgery/trends , Palliative Care/trends , Philosophy, Medical , Terminal Care/trends , Communication , Education, Medical, Continuing , General Surgery/education , General Surgery/methods , Humans , Information Services , Internet , Needs Assessment , Palliative Care/methods , Palliative Care/psychology , Physician's Role , Physician-Patient Relations , Quality of Life , Research , Suicide, Assisted , Terminal Care/methods , Terminal Care/psychologyABSTRACT
Despite important early contributions by individual surgeons to the hospice movement, the recent relationship between palliative medicine and surgery has been distant. The paucity of contributions from the surgical literature on palliative care and the lack of familiarity with surgical illness by palliative care practitioners signals a lack of preparation necessary to address many of the issues presented by chronic, incurable surgical illnesses. Remediation of this problem is possible through a planned, sequential program of interdisciplinary effort.
