The Hospice Handbook

In recent years hospice care has gone from a little-known medical alternative to a major movement in health care. By emphasizing palliative care and pain management rather than curative treatment, hospices allow the terminally ill to spend the last days, week, or months of their lives in their own homes, cared for by their families under the supervision of a team of specially trained hospice workers that includes doctors, nurses, social workers, and volunteers. The Hospice Handbook assures us that the terminally ill do have options, and the quality of their lives can still be within their control.

This practical guide briefly covers the historical and epidemiological background of palliative care and the growth of palliative medicine as a specialty, before dealing with major physical, psychological, spiritual, and symptom management issues from diagnosis to bereavement care.

This comprehensive pocket-size handbook is the essential reference for clinicians and others serving patients with advanced or life-limiting illness. It offers up-to-date, relevant, and highly practical guidance to expertly meet the challenges of serving these patients and their families. This user-friendly manual emphasizes the importance of honoring patients' wishes throughout their medical journey while meeting their whole-person, often complex needs-from symptom management to attending to spiritual and emotional suffering-and always acknowledges the context of patients' lives, including the needs of loved ones supporting them. The layout makes finding information quick and easy, with alphabetically organized chapter headings and a detailed index. Organ-system-based chapters offer disease-specific, goals-of-care discussion guidance and reviews of etiology, signs and symptoms, assessment, and management-including standard treatment as well as palliative options. Other chapters cover communication with patients and families, consultation with colleagues, and code status discussions, along with valuable subjects such as withdrawing life support, ethics, spirituality, physician-assisted death, and palliative options of last resort. Readers will find practical management strategies for symptoms such as pain, nausea, dyspnea, and delirium. In addition, chapters on opioid use and dosing, and pharmacology of commonly used palliative medications, make this guide an invaluable resource.

Handbook of palliative care Comprehensive resource utilising up-to-date evidence and guidelines to support non-specialists in palliative care in both hospital and community settings Building on the success of previous editions, this new edition of the award winning handbook has a practical focus and provides the user with an approach to clinical challenges while also providing enough information to explain why this approach is suggested. The 4th edition of Handbook of Palliative Care supports non-specialists in palliative care in both hospital and community settings and focuses on holistic care and therapeutic interventions. With several new chapters and content significantly updated to reflect new evidence and practice, the 4th edition also presents up-to-date evidence, guidance in a succinct format and utilises flow charts and figures to enhance the accessibility of information. Written by four highly accomplished nursing and medical authors with over 100 years’ experience between them in hospital, hospice, care home and community settings, Handbook of Palliative Care provides: Guidance from clinicians who are experts in their field An acknowledgment of the requirements of healthcare professionals attending to patients with palliative care needs, along with a dedicated chapter addressing this topic Contemporary guidance on medicine management, symptom control and managing complications of cancer Palliative care in heart failure, renal disease and advanced liver, neurological and respiratory diseases An in-depth look at patient and public involvement in palliative care and inequity Skill development including communication, ethical considerations and spiritual care New chapters including frailty, dementia, and multi-morbidity; and palliative care for people living with mental illness and people with intellectual disabilities This 4th edition of Handbook of Palliative Care is an ideal supporting resource for doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals caring for patients with palliative care needs in the UK and beyond. The 1st edition was the winner of the 1999 BMA Medical Book of the Year Prize.

"A guide for carers caring for a person who has a life limiting illness at home"--Provided by publisher.

This is the only handbook for hospice and palliative care professionals looking to enhance their care delivery or their programs with LGBTQ-inclusive care. Anchored in the evidence, extensively referenced, and written in clear, easy-to-understand language, LGBTQ-Inclusive Hospice and Palliative Care provides clear, actionable strategies for hospice and palliative physicians, nurses, social workers, counselors, and chaplains.

Handbook of Pain and Palliative Care:Biobehavioral Approaches for the Life Course Rhonda J. Moore, editor This book takes both a biobehavioral and a lifespan approach to understanding long-term and chronic pain, and intervening to optimize patients’ functioning. Rich in clinical diversity, chapters explore emerging areas of interest (computer-based interventions, fibromyalgia, stress), ongoing concerns (cancer pain, low back pain), and special populations (pediatric, elderly, military). This coverage provides readers with a knowledge base in assessment, treatment, and management that is up to date, practice strengthening, and forward looking. Subject areas featured in the Handbook include: ▪ Patient-practitioner communication ▪ Assessment tools and strategies ▪ Common pain conditions across the lifespan ▪ Biobehavioral mechanisms of chronic pain ▪ Pharmaceutical, neurological, and rehabilitative interventions ▪ Psychosocial, complementary/alternative, narrative, and spiritual approaches ▪ Ethical issue and future directions With the rise of integrative perspective and the emphasis on overall quality of life rather than discrete symptoms, pain management is gaining importance across medical disciplines. Handbook of Pain and Palliative Care stands out as a one-stop reference for a range of professionals, including health practitioners specializing in pain management or palliative care, clinical and health psychologists, public health professionals, and clinicians and administrators in long-term care and hospice.