ABSTRACT
In my 19 years as a palliative care nurse I have noticed that, although the presence of palliative care has greatly expanded in hospitals, its role still remains a mystery to many patients, relatives and professionals. It therefore seems appropriate to begin by demystifying and defining it:
Palliative care is an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing the problem associated with lifethreatening illness, through the prevention and relief of suffering by means of early identification and impeccable assessment and treatment of pain and other problems, physical, psychosocial and spiritual. Palliative care . . . affirms life and regards dying as a normal process; [it] intends neither to hasten or postpone death.
