Palliative Care Is Not a Synonym of End-of-Life Care

Abstract

Palliative care has changed its meaning in recent years, moving away from the idea of being a synonym of end of life, and expanding to include chronic diseases with uncertain prognosis. Here we will describe this new approach. This has also a special meaning in the pediatric field, where there are also important differences compared to adult palliative care. These differences can be described as follows: heterogeneity of the subject’s capacity due to his/her development, greater heterogeneity of duration of palliative care compared to adults and greater presence of pathologies linked to rare diseases; these particularities will be described in the text. Moreover, a peculiarity of pediatric palliative care is that it necessarily includes the children’s parents, whose grief and efforts should be cared for by the palliativists. These patients need special care, as advocated by the pioneer of palliative care, Florence Nightingale, whose tenets will be described here, as an evergreen paradigm.