Hospital room transforming into a serene garden, symbolizing end-of-life care.

Redefining Care: Making End-of-Life Support a Priority in Hospitals

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Soraya Malik in Health & Wellness December 2025 • 5 min read.

"Discover how integrating palliative care principles can transform hospital settings, ensuring dignity and comfort for patients and their families."


Imagine a patient, battling metastatic lung cancer for over a year, admitted to a hospital ward. Gravely ill, struggling with acute respiratory distress, pain, confusion, and fear. Their family, anxious and seeking reassurance, asks how their loved one will be cared for. This scenario, while specific, highlights a broader challenge: how effectively do hospitals address the needs of patients in their final stages of life?

Too often, despite best efforts, the patient's end-of-life needs are not recognized or adequately addressed. The family may feel unheard, and healthcare providers might question whether they did everything possible. This reflects a gap in training and a need for a more integrated approach to end-of-life care within general hospital settings.

This article delves into the importance of integrating palliative care principles into hospital settings to ensure dignity, comfort, and support for both patients and their families. It addresses the need for a shift in perspective, viewing death not as a failure, but as an inevitable part of life that deserves compassionate and comprehensive care.

The Urgent Need for Better End-of-Life Care: Why Hospitals Must Adapt

Hospital room transforming into a serene garden, symbolizing end-of-life care.

Studies across different countries, including Italy, reveal a concerning trend: the quality of care for patients in the final stages of life within hospitals is often insufficient. A significant percentage of patients experience poorly managed pain and physical symptoms, despite available treatments. This highlights a systemic failure to prioritize comfort and holistic well-being during a patient's final days.

The consequences of inadequate end-of-life care extend beyond the patient. Families often experience dissatisfaction with the care provided, particularly concerning communication. Furthermore, healthcare professionals themselves can be negatively impacted, struggling with the emotional and ethical challenges of managing death within a system not always equipped to support it.

  • Uncontrolled Symptoms: Many patients suffer from poorly managed pain and other distressing physical symptoms.
  • Inappropriate Interventions: Patients are subjected to unnecessary and burdensome diagnostic tests and treatments.
  • Communication Gaps: Lack of clear and consistent communication between medical staff, patients, and families leads to dissatisfaction and mistrust.
  • Emotional Toll: Healthcare providers face emotional strain and ethical dilemmas due to the challenges of providing end-of-life care in inadequately supported environments.
Recognizing death as a natural conclusion to life, rather than a personal defeat, is crucial. Continuing aggressive treatments until the very end often proves counterproductive, diminishing the patient's quality of life and potentially prolonging suffering. Addressing the "true" needs of the dying, such as symptom control, psychological, social, and spiritual support, requires a shift in focus.

Transforming Hospital Care: Steps Towards a More Compassionate Approach

The hospice model, with its emphasis on palliative care, demonstrates that providing dignified and comfortable end-of-life care is achievable. The challenge lies in translating these principles into the hospital setting, particularly in general medicine wards where a significant portion of patients with chronic and degenerative diseases die.

Integrated care pathways, such as the Liverpool Care Pathway (LCP), offer a structured approach to improving end-of-life care in hospitals. These pathways aim to equip entire hospital departments with the knowledge and skills to address the complex needs of dying patients and their families. A recent study describes the implementation of a care pathway, adapted from the LCP, in an internal medicine ward in Italy, with encouraging preliminary results.

Providing good end-of-life care in hospitals should be the norm, not the exception. By embracing palliative care principles, adopting integrated care pathways, and investing in training and resources, hospitals can transform the dying experience for patients and their families, ensuring dignity, comfort, and peace in their final moments.

About this Article -

This article was crafted using a human-AI hybrid and collaborative approach. AI assisted our team with initial drafting, research insights, identifying key questions, and image generation. Our human editors guided topic selection, defined the angle, structured the content, ensured factual accuracy and relevance, refined the tone, and conducted thorough editing to deliver helpful, high-quality information.See our About page for more information.

Everything You Need To Know

1

What does it mean to integrate palliative care principles into hospital settings for end-of-life care?

Integrating palliative care principles in hospitals means focusing on providing comfort, dignity, and support to patients and their families during the end-of-life phase. This involves managing pain and symptoms effectively, improving communication between medical staff, patients, and families, and offering psychological, social, and spiritual support. It's about recognizing death as a natural part of life and shifting the focus from aggressive treatments to holistic well-being.

2

What are the main consequences of not providing adequate end-of-life care in hospitals?

Insufficient end-of-life care in hospitals can result in uncontrolled symptoms like poorly managed pain, inappropriate medical interventions, and communication gaps between healthcare providers, patients, and their families. This leads to patient and family dissatisfaction, emotional distress for healthcare providers, and a diminished quality of life for patients in their final days. These issues highlight the critical need for hospitals to prioritize and improve end-of-life care.

3

How can the hospice model inform improvements to end-of-life care in hospitals?

The hospice model offers a framework for dignified and comfortable end-of-life care by emphasizing palliative care. This model focuses on symptom management, emotional and spiritual support, and clear communication. Applying the principles of the hospice model to general hospital wards can enhance care for patients with chronic and degenerative diseases, ensuring their comfort and well-being in their final stages of life.

4

What practical steps can hospitals take to transform end-of-life care and make it more compassionate?

Hospitals can improve end-of-life care by prioritizing palliative care principles. This includes training staff in effective symptom management and communication skills, establishing clear protocols for end-of-life care, and providing access to psychological, social, and spiritual support services. Recognizing death as a natural process and focusing on the patient's overall well-being are essential steps in transforming hospital care to be more compassionate.

5

Why is it important to address the psychological, social, and spiritual needs of patients at the end of life, and what happens if these needs are ignored?

Failing to address the psychological, social, and spiritual needs of patients at the end of life can result in increased suffering and decreased quality of life. Psychological distress, unresolved social issues, and unmet spiritual needs can significantly impact a patient's comfort and sense of dignity. Providing holistic support that addresses these needs alongside physical symptoms is essential for ensuring compassionate and comprehensive end-of-life care in hospitals.

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