Palliative and end-of-life care in the emergency department

With current medical advances, the human population continues to age. This presents healthcare practitioners with the increasing complexity of providing care to elderly patients with multifactorial medical and personal needs. This is a particular challenge in the emergency department, where patients often present for care in the last months of their lives. Early identification of palliative care needs and initiation of comfort care can drastically improve patient care and quality of life. Although emergency physicians agree that palliative care is an important area of knowledge, there is a gap in palliative care training in emergency medicine residencies. It is increasingly important for emergency medicine providers to have the resources and training to provide palliative care and to understand end-of-life issues.