Providing Quality Wound Care at the End of Life.

Palliative care concentrates on reducing the severity of disease symptoms rather than striving to halt, delay, or reverse progression of the disease itself or provide a cure. The goal is to prevent and relieve suffering and to improve quality of life for people facing serious, complex illness. Managing pain and other distressing symptoms is an important goal of palliative care. Pain and other symptoms are experienced with wounds. Therefore, excellent evidence-based wound care should be an integral component in excellent evidence-based palliative care. The current literature and clinical practice suggest that wound care in palliative settings is a common and complex issue that negatively impacts patients' and families' well-being. Although progress has been made in the assessment and management of wounds., more research is needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]