Palliative and End-of-Life Care in the Emergency Department: Ethics, Evidence, and Practice

Challenging the traditional dichotomy between curative and palliative intent, this chapter reviews the growing body of evidence supporting the integration of palliative care principles into emergency medicine practice. It examines the identification of patients with unmet palliative care needs in the emergency setting, evidence-based approaches to symptom management and goals-of-care communication, advance directive recognition, and ethical decision-making in situations of uncertainty. The chapter also addresses the particular challenges of end-of-life care in resource-constrained and culturally diverse emergency environments.