Overview of specialty
Overview of specialty
Palliative medicine specialists provide holistic supportive care for people with life-limiting illnesses due to non-malignant disease or cancer. The specialty employs a person- and family-centred model of care to ensure that family and carers also receive practical and emotional support.
Palliative medicine specialists contribute to building capacity in non-specialist health care teams, families, and communities to care for people with life-limiting illnesses, and work to normalise the experience of dying and bereavement as part of life. This high-quality care is enhanced by research, quality improvement, policy development, and advocacy.
Palliative medicine specialists have training, experience, and expertise in:
understanding acute and chronic disease, including illness trajectories, prognostication, and disease-directed therapies and management
symptom management, including non-pharmacological and pharmacological treatments
opioid therapy, safe prescribing, monitoring, and adverse effect management
communication skills and empathy
end-of-life care
leading multidisciplinary teams to provide optimal patient- and family-centred care
continuous quality improvement, research and policy development, and advocacy to advance palliative care.