Palliative Symptom

Palliative care addresses distressing symptoms while aligning treatment with the patient's goals, whether the patient is receiving disease-directed therapy, hospice care, or care in the final days of life. The practical nurse may be the first clinician to notice that a patient who was conversing yesterday is now withdrawn, that a new opioid dose is followed by somnolence and myoclonus, or that dyspnea persists despite oxygen. The bedside task is not simply to give a comfort medication. The nurse gathers focused data, looks for a reversible contributor, implements ordered measures, reassesses the response, and communicates changes to the RN or authorized provider. A quiet patient may have hypoactive delirium rather than peaceful acceptance. A patient reporting more pain may have opioid-induced neurotoxicity rather than inadequate analgesia. Those distinctions determine whether the next action is another dose, a safety assessment, or urgent escalation.