Institute for Palliative and End of Life Care
The Institute for Palliative and End-of-Life Care was founded in 2003 in partnership with the Visiting Nurses Association. Housed within Marquette University’s College of Nursing, the Institute aims to educate the health workforce and the community at-large about palliative care, advance care planning, end-of-life care, and grief. Our vision is that people experience an optimum quality of life in the presence of serious illness and in the final stages of life.
— Redefining Palliative Care: A New Consensus-Based Definitiion (Radbruch et at, 2020)
“Palliative care is the active holistic care of individuals across all ages with serious health-related suffering due to severe illness and especially of those near the end of life. It aims to improve the quality of life of patients, their families, and their caregivers.”
What is Palliative Care?
Palliative care is specialized care provided to individuals with a serious, life-limiting illness and their family members. It aims to relieve pain, stress, and other symptoms to improve quality of life for the patient and their family. Sometimes referred to as “comfort care,” palliative care an extra layer of support provided best by a health care team of doctors, nurses, chaplains, and other specialists who focus on the individual’s health care needs as well as their wishes and goals. Palliative care can be provided along with curative-focused treatment, in many health care settings. It is appropriate for a person at any age or at any stage in a serious illness, including the initial diagnosis.
Contact Us
Interim Director, Dr. Stacy Barnes
Straz Hall, 520Q
1225 W. Wisconsin Ave.
Milwaukee, WI 53233
stacy.barnes@marquette.edu
414-288-3709
