Pediatric Hospice Care

Palliative care is a medical specialty that focuses on providing treatment that enhances patients' comfort or quality of life and entails any therapy that focuses on providing relief from the symptoms, pain, and stresses of serious illness. Palliative care generally involves a team-based, multidisciplinary approach, which incorporates physicians, nurses, social workers, psychologists, and other allied health providers. Palliative care can include a wide variety of treatments, including medication, spiritual counseling, and psychological therapy. Although palliative services are appropriate for any individual with a serious illness (regardless of the prognosis), the most recognizable form of palliative care in the United States is hospice.

Hospice is a specific form of palliative medical practice that offers a program of care for terminally ill individuals and their loved ones as ...