Hospice and Palliative Medicine Handbook: Bedside Symptom Control, Opioid Dosing, Goals-of-Care Communication

When your patient is dying, do you know exactly what to do in the next hour? Could you recognize the signs that death is days away and have the right medicines already prescribed before the crisis hits? When a family asks, "How long?", do you have the words? When the pain won't settle, the breathing turns to a rattle, or a spinal cord compression walks through your door, do you reach for the answer or reach for a colleague? Palliative care is where medicine's hardest moments live and where getting it right matters most, because there is no second chance to do it well. The Hospice and Palliative Medicine Handbook is the bedside companion for that work: a rigorously researched, evidence-based reference written for the whole interdisciplinary team physicians, APRNs, PAs, nurses, and allied health professionals who care for the seriously ill and the dying. Across 27 focused chapters, it takes you from first principles to the last hours: - Master symptom control that actually works pain, breathlessness, nausea, delirium, fatigue, and the complex, refractory symptoms that resist first-line treatment- Prescribe opioids with confidence pharmacology, rotation, and a safety-first equianalgesic conversion method that protects you and your patient from the field's most dangerous errors- Handle the emergencies spinal cord compression, SVC obstruction, hypercalcemia, catastrophic hemorrhage, and the pain crisis, each with a clear, time-critical response- Say the hard things well proven frameworks (SPIKES, NURSE) and ready-to-adapt scripts for breaking bad news, leading family meetings, and answering "How long have I got?"- Navigate the ethics capacity, surrogate decisions, palliative sedation, and withdrawing treatment, handled honestly and without evasion- Care across every trajectory cancer, heart failure, lung, kidney, and liver disease, dementia, and frailty- Recognize dying and manage the last hours anticipatory prescribing, terminal symptoms, supporting the family at the bedside, and care after death- Support the bereaved and yourself normal versus prolonged grief, children and grief, and the clinician grief, moral distress, and burnout no one warns you about What sets this handbook apart: - Evidence you can trust grounded in named landmark trials and current guidelines (NICE, EAPC, DSM-5-TR/ICD-11, AHA/ACC/HFSA, and more), with contested evidence presented honestly rather than glossed over- Built for the bedside worked clinical scenarios, quick-reference protocols, prognostic scales, order sets, and original diagrams in every chapter- A complete reference apparatus appendices, a clinical glossary, references by chapter, and a full index, so you find what you need in seconds. >Give your patients the confident, compassionate, expert care they deserve in their most vulnerable moments. Scroll up and order your copy today.