End of Life: Identification and Coping

Abstract

The term end of life is widely used in the scientific literature but lacks a definition that accurately identifies those signs which appear in that situation of last days which precedes death and to whom is incorporated the most prevalent item employed in those prognostic models in cancer disease, such as functionality.Terminal illness and dying make up a process suffered by the sick person but also by the family, which is a basic pillar in provision of care to the patient. A descriptive and exploratory review is made of the meanings about the scientific english literature uses when refers to end of life, of the different patterns of death that present into distinct diseases; of the most used items in prognostic scales, already validated, in cancer, and finally the more frequent used drugs in a situation of imminent end of life. Identification an end of life allows us to use some medicines, at a higher doses than before and through an oral alternative route, the subcutaneous, which permits the control of symptoms that appear in this end-of-life situation to thus facilitate the death of the dying person with family, and relatives, over there. This paper tries to minimize the problem of identifying a person actively dying in which keys are given for its recognition and treatment, not only pharmacological, which can be of interest to all those professionals who face the end of life of any person in this circumstance.