Palliative sedation: an essential place for clinical excellence

The complexities that converge around palliative sedation invite clinicians to work together to differentiate the issues and come to recommendations and decisions that are humane, ethical, legal, and clinically sound. Whether a crisis or long-term situation exists, the work is essentially the same. It must include critical thinking, clinical expertise, multidimensional assessment, and an array of interventions to assist patients and families in situations where symptoms and suffering are sufficiently intense to warrant exploration of sedation. The many issues inherent in the discussion of sedation at end of life require not that we have the answers but rather that we work with our colleagues to raise relevant questions and integrate both expertise and compassion into end-of-life decisions and care.