Welcome to the Palliative Care Home Page

MISSION STATEMENT

We, in Palliative Care, aim to provide the highest standard of care at a physical, emotional, psychological, spiritual, and social level which respects the needs and wishes of each person.     

We advise on symptom control and offer ongoing support for patients, family and friends.

We offer hope and affirm life with an emphasis on enhancing the quality of life through teamwork involving ourselves, patients, families and our colleagues.

We strive for excellence in all aspects of our work beyond accepted standards.

(August 2015)

PALLIATIVE CARE

To provide Specialist Palliative Care to patients and families of the South Infirmary Victoria University Hospital (S.I.V.U.H.).

Palliative Care is an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing the problems associated with life-threatening illness, through the prevention and relief of suffering by means of early identification and impeccable assessment and treatment of pain and other problems, physical, psychosocial and spiritual. We care for patients with malignant and non-malignant diseases.

Palliative Care:

• Provides relief from pain and other distressing symptoms;
• Affirms life and regards dying as a normal process;
• Intends neither to hasten or postpone death;
• Integrates the psychological and spiritual aspects of patient care;
• Offers a support system to help patients live as actively as possible until death;
• Offers a support system to help the family cope during the patients illness and in their own bereavement
• Uses a team approach to address the needs of patients and their families, including bereavement counselling, if indicated;
• Will enhance quality of life, and may also positively influence the course of illness;
• Is applicable early in the course of illness, in conjunction with other therapies that are intended to prolong life, such as chemotherapy or radiation therapy, and includes those investigations needed to better understand and manage distressing clinical complications. (WHO, 2002)

The PALLIATIVE CARE team:

Clinical Nurse Specialist Elaine O’Donovan- Tel: 021 4926647. Bleep 801

It is a 3 day service:

• Tuesday: 07.30-16.30
• Wednesday: 07.30-16.30
• Friday: 07.30 – 16.30

Contact should be made via bleep during these hours as the office phones may be unattended.

Outside of these hours advice can be obtained from the Palliative Care team based at Marymount University Hospice.

Our service is Consultant led and we work closely with Dr Marie Murphy, Consultant in Palliative Care Medicine.

We work in an advisory role, adjacent to the referring team