Sometimes doctors cannot do anything to save a patient, but in many cases something can be done to alleviate their suffering. This is when palliative care comes into play, a work that goes back centuries. In this post we briefly review the history of palliative care.
History of palliative care
According to experts, the concept of palliative care began with hospices, a word that derives from the Latin hospes , which refers to both host and guest.
Hospices flourished in Europe from the 11th century onwards as places of hospitality for the sick, injured or dying, as well as for travelers and pilgrims. Its greatest point of expansion occurred in France during the 17th century at the hands of religious charities.
Palliative care in the modern era
It was the British doctor who founded the current palliative care movement. In 1948, when she was a 20-year-old nurse, she fell in love with a Polish patient who was b2b phone lists dying of cancer. After his death, Ella Saunders decided to start a home or hospital to alleviate the physical and emotional suffering of people who were dying.
Determined to understand the best ways to manage pain, Saunders became a doctor and in 1967 opened St Christopher’s Hospice in Sydenham, south-east London. Dr. Saunders based her concept of palliative care around the belief that dying is as natural as being born and that the last days of a person’s life could be dignified and happy.
Integrating it with curative medicine and rehabilitation
His approach to pain management was simple: constant pain needs constant management. Analgesics should be given regularly to prevent pain, rather than relieve it, and should be us progressively as ne, from mild to severe. Each patient’s needs were individual and specific, and her care had to be develop accordingly, with support extend to her family and caregivers.
The specialty of palliative medicine was first recognized in the Unit Kingdom in 1987, a key moment in the broader shift from ‘end-of-life’ care to the concept of palliative care. Along with the recognition of palliative care came the impulse to transfer this care to earlier stages in the progression of the disease.
The World Health Organization estimat in 2012 that more than 40 million people need palliative care and that with appropriate palliative care the suffering of these people could be prevent. On the other hand, a 2006 study found that BO Leads approximately half of the world’s countries offer some type of palliative care service.
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