Hospital-based Palliative Care Teams

This book looks at the challenges of bringing palliative care into the acute hospital setting, reviewing the needs of patients, their families and carers, and also covers the problems which might be encountered both the theoretical and practical.

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When the first edition of this book (Terminal Care Support Teams: the hospital-hospice interface, 1990) was written, there were only a few advisory palliative care teams working in hospitals. Since then the number of teams has grown rapidly. The concept of these teams in now widely accepted but there is an increased need for information about setting up a team, how they work and how effective they are. This book looks at the need for hospital- based palliative care teams and the challenges of bringing palliative care into the acute hospital setting. It reviews the needs of patients, their families and their professional carers, and also looks at the theoretical and practical problems which may be encountered. For example there is practical advice on setting up hospital-based palliative care teams, the selection of team members as well as coverage of team dynamics, and the role of the pain clinic and palliation oncology.