Palliative Care Definition

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Caring is a daily and permanent activity during the life process, being, thecare of a person with a degenerative disease without any possibility ofbeen cured or in his/her final stage, an integral part of it.

Thepalliative cares had their origin in Europe during the IV century, with the creation of hospices ran by nuns who, with charitableaim, took care of travelers, sick and poor people.

SaintJoseph Convent was founded in London in 1900 to make home visits, andtwo years later it had 30 beds for interned and dying poor people. Until that time the attention was focused on offeringhospitality, basic cares and spiritual aid.

In1952, Cicely Saunders MD tied to Saint Joseph Hospital and developedtechnical concepts of controlling pain and its symptoms in dyingpatients, with which a scientific handling of the patient in a finalstage began.

DoctorSaunders consolidated this movement in Saint Christopher Hospital, institution that became an angular stone in palliative cares, outspreading them to the rest of Europe and the United States. Thisinitiative was approved by the World Health Organization (WHO) almosttwo decades later and at the moment it is applied to patients withlimited life conditions: patients with chronic, degenerativeillnesses, with no possibility ofbeencured and some of them in a final stage.

Children as well as adults, can develop a mortal evolutiveillness. It isnecessary to understand that it is not the remaining time, but thequality of life what really matters. Upon this principle palliativemedicine has been developed worldwide.