Why Palliative Care?

Why Palliative Care? Posted By:
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Palliative and serious illness care can be thought of as a "newer" specialty in medicine. The specialty is still proving its worth to many providers—especially as many may not understand exactly what it entails.

Serious illness is defined as any medical disease or process that is life-threatening, life-limiting, or associated with long-term morbidity and impairments of quality of life. The ability to identify and respect this definition permits patients the respect to be seen as a patient WITH a disease, NOT the disease itself. I would venture to say that the many patients and families who have benefitted from palliative and serious illness care are forever grateful to Dr Balfour Mount, who coined the term "palliative care" in 1974 as a way of distinguishing it from hospice care, which Dame Cicely Saunders founded in 1967. For those of us who practice palliative medicine, it is often hard to believe that Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) did not recognize hospice and palliative as its own specialty until 2006. I am incredibly thankful that this work is becoming more recognized and respected. Most importantly, I am excited to be a PA working with a wonderful team of providers who all hold space for our patients, their families/friends, and the care team.

After almost 20 years in the same hospital system, first in emergency medicine and then as a hospitalist, I am well known to many colleagues. Even still, I feel slightly awkward when answering their questions of, "Why palliative care? Do you like what you are doing?" But I always answer the same: "Absolutely. I was meant to do this, it's my jam." I've asked myself why I feel this way and the simplest reason I can determine is that my quest to normalize death has brought me to a career where I can hold a comforting space for patients and families when having what are often considered difficult conversations—thereby providing the tools to allow those affected by serious illness to verbalize, explore, and establish goals while having their fears validated and their symptoms aggressively managed.

Goals may not be what you expect when you meet a patient, but realizing that each person has their own journey has been the most freeing experience I have had while practicing palliative medicine. Everyone's journey is unique and can teach lessons—maybe not right away, but eventually. Palliative care gives me the gift of listening and thoughtfully responding, observing while being seen, feeling while giving permission to others to feel fully in the moment, and, finally, it allows me to combine my love of medicine with my respect for its limitations. My patients invite me into their lives at their most vulnerable, and being able to serve a purpose in their life's season is what keeps me coming back. We all enter each other's lives at the right moment, whether it is for a brief moment or longer, and the ability to be thankful for that is humbling and empowering. The palliative care specialty has given me a solace I didn't know I needed, but I now realize I cannot thrive without it.

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Filed under: Practice Management/Career

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