Palliative care in emergency services: an integrative review

Abstract This article seeks to understand the approach of emergency teams to patients with an advanced chronic condition from a palliative care perspective. This integrative review searched for articles in five databases using the descriptors “emergency medical services,” “patient assistance team,” “attitudes of health personnel” and “palliative care”. At first, 12,290 publications were identified, which were then reduced to 26 articles for the final sample. Among the main measures found in the literature to use palliative care in emergency services, the following stand out: individualized and flexible care plan; network management; access to the palliative care team; empathic communication; identification eligible patients; and control of symptoms. We thus conclude that emergency teams must recognize the importance of palliative care and redirect the care focused in “saving lives” towards a care that preserves human dignity.