Elise C Tarbi, Caitlyn M Moore, Cara L Wallace, Yvan Beaussant, Elizabeth G Broden, Danielle Chammas, Paul Galchutt, Danielle Gilchrist, Adam Hayden, Brianna Morgan, Leah B Rosenberg, Zachary Sager, Sheldon Solomon, William E Rosa, Harvey Max Chochinov
Identifying and attending to the existential needs of persons with serious illness and their care partners are integral to whole-person palliative care (PC). Yet, many PC clinicians, due to individual factors and wider systemic barriers, are ill-prepared and under-resourced to navigate the existential dimension. In this article, written from clinical, research, and lived experiences, we offer tips to empower PC clinicians to understand, recognize, and respond to patients' and care partners' existential experiences by leveraging their existing skills, collaborating closely with colleagues, exploring their own existential experience, and implementing evidence-based interventions...
March 28, 2024: Journal of Palliative Medicine