Practical wisdom: competencies required in alleviating suffering in palliative care

The aim of this article is to reflect upon the competencies required to alleviate suffering in palliative care. The knowledge to prudently and wisely act in a situation involving human relationships can be defined in terms of practical abilities and contextual skills. In the setting of the care of the very ill and dying, practical wisdom such as the carer's ability to meet the suffering person and to act with sensitivity and openness, becomes important. From this, learning to alleviate suffering emerges as receiving insight and wisdom from the suffering person's experience of suffering. This means that the testimony of suffering persons--what they have endured, given up and experienced--becomes as significant as theoretical and practical knowledge of suffering. The professional carer needs to learn how to be open to and interpret what the suffering person, living with suffering and death in the midst of life, can teach.