Palliative & End-of-Life Care

Palliative Care in Acute and Critical Care Setting

The goal of palliative care is to address the impact of serious illness by managing symptoms, improving quality of life, providing emotional, spiritual and psychosocial support, and ensuring that the plan of care aligns with patient and family goals and values. Under usual circumstances, there is significant overlap between nursing basics and palliative care, as both focus on relieving suffering, supporting patients and families and providing patient-centered care.

AACN offers resources to support nurses caring for patients with serious illnesses and those nearing the end of life, as well as education for clinicians who may not routinely provide this kind of care. In addition, several respected organizations offer widely recognized resources on these topics, including the End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium (palliative care training), the Center to Advance Palliative Care (toolkits) and Vital Talk program (communication skills).

Key Resources

Communication skills and education can increase your confidence when discussing goals of care with patients and families. Keep up with the latest developments in palliative care with this selection of AACN resources, designed to help you deliver the best possible evidence-based care.

Palliative Care Nursing in Medical Intensive Care Units

Discover how palliative care specialty nurses partner with ICU teams to manage symptoms, support families and align care with patients’ values and preferences.

Palliative Care in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit

Gain insights into pediatric palliative care in the ICU, including ethical challenges, goals-of-care discussions and strategies to support the patient and families facing serious illness.

End-of-Life Care for Pediatric Patients and Families

Learn practical approaches to compassionate pediatric end-of-life care, supporting families through bereavement and building nurse resilience.

Primary Palliative Care Skills for Every Nurse

Explore strategies for assessing and managing palliative symptoms, facilitating goal-aligned discussions and supporting nurse well-being by reducing moral distress.

Palliative Care Communication Skills

View videos demonstrating essential communication skills for providing primary palliative care in this interactive case-based webinar.

Ethical Triage and End-of-Life Care

AACN’s position statement gives specific actions for nurses and organizations when triage guidelines apply to the allocation of scarce resources.

Facts & Figures

Financial Impact

The Center to Advance Palliative Care estimates 13 million adults and 700,000 children in the U.S. are living with a serious illness and may benefit from palliative care.

Primary Palliative Care

More than 80% of hospitals with 50 or more beds have a specialty palliative care resource, which means the primary team caring for the patient is the best resource to provide this care.

Inpatients With Serious Illness

According to an AHRQ report, one in three American adults has multiple chronic conditions, accounting for approximately 70% of all inpatient stays and a disproportionate share of health care utilization and costs.

Training Makes a Difference

Education and training in palliative care improve clinicians' communication skills, confidence and ability to provide high-quality care for seriously ill patients and their families.

What’s the Difference?

Palliative, end-of-life and hospice care share many principles but differ in timing, patient prognosis, goals of care and insurance reimbursement.

Palliative Care

Palliative care is appropriate at any time in the trajectory of serious illness or injury and does not replace curative interventions.
Palliative care is given in many settings, including ICU, PCU, acute care or outpatient.
Palliative care communication skills can be used to explain prognosis or uncertainty about prognosis and to elicit patient and family perspectives even if a change in the plan of care does not occur.
Insurance reimburses for specialty palliative care in the same way other consultative services are paid for and does not depend on a specific prognosis.
In some instances, palliative care is delivered by the primary care team instead of as an additional service. This is called primary palliative care.

End-of-Life Care & Hospice

End-of-life care refers to the support provided when a patient is nearing death, focused on symptom management, patient and family support, and care that aligns with the patient’s goals and values.
For some serious illnesses, prognosis is uncertain and it is unclear if the care provided is life-sustaining or end-of-life.
Hospice eligibility generally requires a life expectancy of six month or less if the illness follows its usual course, although coverage requirements vary by payer.
Hospice provides a comprehensive set of services focused on comfort, emotional support, education and guidance for patients and families.
Hospice services can be provided at home, in a skilled nursing facility or in a hospital.

Remember that (palliative care) can be offered simultaneously with curative, aggressive, lifesaving treatments. People do not have to wait. They do not have to choose.
Clareen Wiencek, PhD, RN, ACHPN, ACNP, AACN past president

Additional Resources

Access AACN’s complete library of programs and publications on palliative and end-of-life care. This compilation of resources includes journal articles, webinars and CE activities to improve your understanding of palliative and end-of-life care, and enhance your practice.