Caring for the chronically ill

Palliative care aims at relieving pain, improving quality of life and reducing the distress of chronically ill or dying patients and their families.

The longer that physicians care for dying patients, the more distressed they are after their death. Physicians can feel a sense of satisfaction in being an important part of a person's quality of life as they were dying, but at the same time, be very distressed that the person has died. In a survey, about one third of the doctors rated the death as having a strong emotional impact. Emotional reactions were associated with length of time they had provided care. Female physicians generally reported more symptoms of grief than did their male counterparts. Emotional support for such doctors is often lacking.