Care alleviating symptoms without curing the underlying disease. (Stedman, 25th ed)

Medical and nursing care of patients in the terminal stage of an illness.

Persons with an incurable or irreversible illness at the end stage that will result in death within a short time. (From O'Leary et al., Lexikon: Dictionary of Health Care Terms, Organizations, and Acronyms for the Era of Reform, 1994, p780)

Specialized health care, supportive in nature, provided to a dying person. A holistic approach is often taken, providing patients and their families with legal, financial, emotional, or spiritual counseling in addition to meeting patients' immediate physical needs. Care may be provided in the home, in the hospital, in specialized facilities (HOSPICES), or in specially designated areas of long-term care facilities. The concept also includes bereavement care for the family. (From Dictionary of Health Services Management, 2d ed)

Conceptual response of the person to the various aspects of death, which are based on individual psychosocial and cultural experience.

A nursing specialty concerned with care of patients facing serious or life-threatening illnesses. The goal of palliative nursing is to prevent and relieve suffering, and to support the best possible quality of life for patients and their families. Hospice nursing is palliative care for people in their final stages of life.

Facilities or services which are especially devoted to providing palliative and supportive care to the patient with a terminal illness and to the patient's family.

New abnormal growth of tissue. Malignant neoplasms show a greater degree of anaplasia and have the properties of invasion and metastasis, compared to benign neoplasms.

Institutions specializing in the care of cancer patients.

The act or practice of killing or allowing death from natural causes, for reasons of mercy, i.e., in order to release a person from incurable disease, intolerable suffering, or undignified death. (from Beauchamp and Walters, Contemporary Issues in Bioethics, 5th ed)

A subspecialty of internal medicine concerned with the study of neoplasms.

A form of therapy that employs a coordinated and interdisciplinary approach for easing the suffering and improving the quality of life of those experiencing pain.

Community health and NURSING SERVICES providing coordinated multiple services to the patient at the patient's homes. These home-care services are provided by a visiting nurse, home health agencies, HOSPITALS, or organized community groups using professional staff for care delivery. It differs from HOME NURSING which is provided by non-professionals.

Sensitivity or attachment to religious values, or to things of the spirit as opposed to material or worldly interests. (from Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 10th ed, and Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed)

Care of patients by a multidisciplinary team usually organized under the leadership of a physician; each member of the team has specific responsibilities and the whole team contributes to the care of the patient.

Refers to the whole process of grieving and mourning and is associated with a deep sense of loss and sadness.

A generic concept reflecting concern with the modification and enhancement of life attributes, e.g., physical, political, moral and social environment; the overall condition of a human life.

A performance measure for rating the ability of a person to perform usual activities, evaluating a patient's progress after a therapeutic procedure, and determining a patient's suitability for therapy. It is used most commonly in the prognosis of cancer therapy, usually after chemotherapy and customarily administered before and after therapy. It was named for Dr. David A. Karnofsky, an American specialist in cancer chemotherapy.

An unpleasant sensation induced by noxious stimuli which are detected by NERVE ENDINGS of NOCICEPTIVE NEURONS.

Evaluation undertaken to assess the results or consequences of management and procedures used in combating disease in order to determine the efficacy, effectiveness, safety, and practicability of these interventions in individual cases or series.

Discussions with patients and/or their representatives about the goals and desired direction of the patient's care, particularly end-of-life care, in the event that the patient is or becomes incompetent to make decisions.

Persons who provide care to those who need supervision or assistance in illness or disability. They may provide the care in the home, in a hospital, or in an institution. Although caregivers include trained medical, nursing, and other health personnel, the concept also refers to parents, spouses, or other family members, friends, members of the clergy, teachers, social workers, fellow patients.

The practice of sending a patient to another program or practitioner for services or advice which the referring source is not prepared to provide.

A province of eastern Canada, one of the Maritime Provinces with NEW BRUNSWICK; PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND; and sometimes NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR. Its capital is Halifax. The territory was granted in 1621 by James I to the Scotsman Sir William Alexander and was called Nova Scotia, the Latin for New Scotland. The territory had earlier belonged to the French, under the name of Acadia. (From Webster's New Geographical Dictionary, 1988, p871 & Room, Brewer's Dictionary of Names, 1992, p384)

The interactions between the professional person and the family.

Attitudes of personnel toward their patients, other professionals, toward the medical care system, etc.

Studies used to test etiologic hypotheses in which inferences about an exposure to putative causal factors are derived from data relating to characteristics of persons under study or to events or experiences in their past. The essential feature is that some of the persons under study have the disease or outcome of interest and their characteristics are compared with those of unaffected persons.

Any impairment, arrest, or reversal of the normal flow of INTESTINAL CONTENTS toward the ANAL CANAL.

General and comprehensive nursing practice directed to individuals, families, or groups as it relates to and contributes to the health of a population or community. This is not an official program of a Public Health Department.

The exchange or transmission of ideas, attitudes, or beliefs between individuals or groups.

Tumors or cancer of the BILE DUCTS.

Persistent pain that is refractory to some or all forms of treatment.

The hospital department responsible for the administration and provision of diagnostic and therapeutic services for the cancer patient.

The levels of excellence which characterize the health service or health care provided based on accepted standards of quality.

Irreversible cessation of all bodily functions, manifested by absence of spontaneous breathing and total loss of cardiovascular and cerebral functions.

The minimum acceptable patient care, based on statutes, court decisions, policies, or professional guidelines.

Provision (by a physician or other health professional, or by a family member or friend) of support and/or means that gives a patient the power to terminate his or her own life. (from APA, Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms, 8th ed).

Research carried out by nurses in the clinical setting and designed to provide information that will help improve patient care. Other professional staff may also participate in the research.

Surgical formation of an opening through the ABDOMINAL WALL into the JEJUNUM, usually for enteral hyperalimentation.

Predetermined sets of questions used to collect data - clinical data, social status, occupational group, etc. The term is often applied to a self-completed survey instrument.

A system of medicine which aims at discovering the exact nature of the relationship between the emotions and bodily function, affirming the principle that the mind and body are one.

Difficulty in SWALLOWING which may result from neuromuscular disorder or mechanical obstruction. Dysphagia is classified into two distinct types: oropharyngeal dysphagia due to malfunction of the PHARYNX and UPPER ESOPHAGEAL SPHINCTER; and esophageal dysphagia due to malfunction of the ESOPHAGUS.

Professionals qualified by graduation from an accredited school of nursing and by passage of a national licensing examination to practice nursing. They provide services to patients requiring assistance in recovering or maintaining their physical or mental health.

Systematic identification of a population's needs or the assessment of individuals to determine the proper level of services needed.

A prediction of the probable outcome of a disease based on a individual's condition and the usual course of the disease as seen in similar situations.

The right of the patient or the patient's representative to make decisions with regard to the patient's dying.

Generating, planning, organizing, and administering medical and nursing care and services for patients.

Communication, in the sense of cross-fertilization of ideas, involving two or more academic disciplines (such as the disciplines that comprise the cross-disciplinary field of bioethics, including the health and biological sciences, the humanities, and the social sciences and law). Also includes problems in communication stemming from differences in patterns of language usage in different academic or medical disciplines.

The proportion of survivors in a group, e.g., of patients, studied and followed over a period, or the proportion of persons in a specified group alive at the beginning of a time interval who survive to the end of the interval. It is often studied using life table methods.

Tumors or cancer located in bone tissue or specific BONES.

A class of statistical procedures for estimating the survival function (function of time, starting with a population 100% well at a given time and providing the percentage of the population still well at later times). The survival analysis is then used for making inferences about the effects of treatments, prognostic factors, exposures, and other covariates on the function.

Declarations by patients, made in advance of a situation in which they may be incompetent to decide about their own care, stating their treatment preferences or authorizing a third party to make decisions for them. (Bioethics Thesaurus)

A subspecialty of medical oncology and radiology concerned with the radiotherapy of cancer.

Usually a written medical and nursing care program designed for a particular patient.

The process of making a selective intellectual judgment when presented with several complex alternatives consisting of several variables, and usually defining a course of action or an idea.

The interactions between physician and patient.

The transfer of a neoplasm from one organ or part of the body to another remote from the primary site.