Last Days of Life: Care for the Patient and Family

The last days of life provide an opportunity for physicians to promote comfort, peacefulness, dignity, healing, and closure. The first step hospitalists can take is to recognize the opportunity for maximizing comfort measures as soon as possible and to anticipate the patient's physical symptoms and the family's emotional distress. A helpful strategy for communicating in this context is to offer the family a clear description of what the dying process looks like, or signposting. Following through on the promise to provide comfort in the last days of life requires proficiency in the pronouncement of death and in communication with family members and relevant clinicians.