Palliative care neither hastens nor postpones death. Palliative care seeks to relieve suffering, control symptoms, and restore ability, while considering personal, cultural, and religious values, beliefs, and practices of the individual and the family. It is the holistic management of physical, psychological, social, spiritual, and other needs. Hospice is a form of palliative care. Palliative care in hospice acknowledges that dying is a normal part of life, and yet the care does not end with the death of the patient.
Support continues for the family for at least the first year after the death.
An example of an indication for either chemotherapy or radiation therapy would be cancer pain unrelieved despite appropriate and adequate use of pain medications. If the goal of treatment is to relieve a symptom which can not be relieved by any other method, chemotherapy or radiation therapy might be utilized as a part of the hospice plan of care. This decision is made by the patient, physician, and the hospice team, and the overall quality of life is a significant consideration in this decision process. IV fluids might be a part of comfort care, although in most instances the addition of IV fluids cause difficult to control symptoms, such as fluid overload, edema, and heart failure. The dialogue regarding the use of IV fluids is best addressed by the patient, physician, and hospice team, with consideration given for the goal of the IV fluids.