Kim K. Kuebler, Mellar P. Davis, Crystal Dea Moore. St. Louis, MI: Elsevier Mosby; 2005. Softcover, 491 pages. ISBN 0-323-02821-7.

The provision of healthcare to patients requires a delicate balance between doing good and doing no harm. This is especially true in critical care units in which the technologic therapies used to “rescue” acutely and critically ill patients are often painful and undignified. The concept of relieving pain and suffering for those at end of life—palliative care—now has been expanded to include approaches that address the quality of life for those facing life-threatening illnesses.1 This broadened definition has placed palliative care into the domain of critical care practitioners as a necessary skill, not only during curative therapy, but also comfort-care only treatment at end of life. Palliative Practices was written by experts in palliative care with the expressed purpose to be a reference for healthcare providers and a study...

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