Heart failure and palliative care

Palliative Care and Hospice Palliative care is care that aims to treat suffering and to improve the quality of life of patients and their families with serious illnesses. It involves an interdisciplinary team of physicians, nurses, social workers, chaplains, pharmacists, and volunteers and is appropriate at any stage of illness (1). Palliative care is a broader approach than hospice care, which typically occurs only for patients with an estimated prognosis of six months or less and for whom efforts at disease-modifying therapy are not being undertaken.