Introducing palliative care

This book is a standard text for those with an interest in palliative care. In this third edition, there have been major revisions in relation to pain and symptom management, and drug profiles. The section on ethics has been expanded. The focus is still on the care of patients with terminal cancer, yet the general principles and most of the details are equally applicable to patients dying from other progressive disorders. Students of palliative care professionals at all levels need an awareness of the delicate ethical and emotional issues concerned and of the evolving approaches to available therapies. Emphasizing the needs of the whole person, this book examines the systems of care in hospices and at home, the ethics of palliative care, communicating wtih dying patients and their relatives, meeting their psychological and spiritual needs, and pain and symptom management including drug profiles. Developed from the author's training programme now used in many countries around the world, "Introducing Palliative Care" is a structured and essential manual for those working in this demanding field.