Palliative Care in Emergency Medicine

Many emergency clinicians encounter a gap in knowledge and skills when presented with serious life-threatening illness, particularly in patients with advanced and terminal illness. Over the last decade, studies have shown that patients who receive palliative care in the emergency setting have improved clinical outcomes with better symptom management, improved goal concordant care, and more effective resource utilization that delivers improved patient centered outcomes. Palliative Care in Emergency Medicine is intended to serve as a practical resource to the essential clinicians on the frontlines of emergency care.

Dr. Quest brings together emergency medicine clinicians and palliative care subspecialists to discuss common, challenging cases that clinicians struggle with daily regarding care for patients and families experiencing serious, life threatening, and terminal illnesses. Each chapter opens with a typical emergency department clinical case, followed by a discussion, conclusion, and suggested readings that explore the topic in more depth. Palliative Care in Emergency Medicine equips emergency clinicians to meet seriously ill patients and family wherever they are and provide the best care possible.

Dr. Tammie E. Quest is the Montgomery Chair in Palliative Medicine and Professor in the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine and the Department of Emergency Medicine. She is the former President of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine (AAHPM) and the founding and current Director of the Emory Palliative Care Center. Dr. Quest also leads Northwestern University's Education in Palliative and End of Life Care Education-Emergency Medicine (EPEC-EM) Project.

Preface
1. Primary ED Palliative Care
2. Trajectories and Prognostication
3. Goals of Care Discussions
4. Advance Directives and Advance Care Planning
5. Dyspnea
6. Nausea and Vomiting
7. Cancer Pain
8. Last Hours of Living
9. Non-malignant and chronic pain
10. Devices and Therapies
11. Family Presence During Resuscitation
12. Ventilator Withdrawal
13. Death of a Child
14. Hospice Referral from the ED
15. Hospice Patient in the ED
16. Cultural and Spiritual Considerations
17. Ethical Aspects of Care
18. Global Aspects of Palliative Care
19. Prehospital Palliative Care
20. Models of Care/Implementation of Palliative Care in the ED
21. Palliative Care Consultation in the ED