Palliative Care

Making a Difference in Your Health Care Experience

If you're facing a serious illness, inpatient palliative care can accompany your curative treatment to help ease your symptoms and improve your quality of life — no matter your age or stage of illness.

Taking a team-based, care-planning approach, we’ll help you and your family establish goals of care in a hospital setting. Our palliative care team of specialists will work to ensure that you receive:

Treatment to relieve symptoms of your condition
Assistance in coordinating your care among your health care providers
Support for goals-of-care discussions for patients and family
Emotional, practical and spiritual support for you and your family

At every step of your care, we’ll be with you and your family, easing your mind and lifting your spirit.

We believe you should not have to choose between symptom control and disease treatment. Palliative care can be provided along with treatment at any age or stage of illness. If you believe that you or a loved one might benefit from palliative care, we have the support you need to make the best possible decision. Speak with your health care provider or your loved one’s provider to learn more.

Senior couple viewing a laptop together at the kitchen counter

An advance care plan, also known as an advance directive, outlines your wishes and serves as an essential guide for your loved ones and care team in case of a health emergency.

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When is the right time for palliative care?: If you or a loved one have a serious illness that’s causing pain, distressing symptoms, reducing the quality of life or bringing up complex decisions, palliative care can help. You can begin palliative care at any stage of disease — the earlier the better — whether you’re receiving medical treatment directed at the disease or not. We can help shield you from the burdens of disease or treatment and provide clarity in uncertain situations.
How is palliative care different from hospice care?: Both palliative and hospice care aim to reduce pain and symptoms of serious illness, but hospice care aims to reduce suffering near the end of life, when you’re no longer receiving treatment aimed at curing disease.

Palliative care, on the other hand, can be used at any stage. The goal is to shield you from the burdens of disease and provide comfort to the body, mind and spirit, starting at diagnosis. Palliative care is usually provided on an inpatient basis in a hospital or clinic.
How can palliative care help?: Palliative care focuses on your physical comfort, as well as your emotional and spiritual well-being. We can provide medicine, counseling and other support to help:

Clarify health care goals and communicate your values and concerns to your physicians

Ease pain and other symptoms such as nausea, fatigue, depression and anxiety

Offer support for family members and caregivers for reducing stress and coping with emotions

Provide the information and emotional support you and your family need to make complex medical decisions
Who will be on my palliative care team?: Palliative care at AdventHealth is provided by our interdisciplinary team of physicians, advance practice providers (APPs), licensed clinical social workers, chaplaincy leaders and other professionals who have all undergone specialized training in palliative care.

Our team will work closely with your other physicians and health care providers to provide an extra layer of support focused solely on improving your quality of life. Providers can treat symptoms like pain, constipation, nausea, dyspnea and anxiety while also assisting in ensuring goals of care for patients and families align with medical treatment.

A mother and daughter, walking outside, offer emotional support to each other.

The AdventHealth Palliative Care Program is guided by Christ’s direction for eternal life: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” We follow His guidance that being a good neighbor is following the parable of the Samaritan by guiding patients throughout their serious illness.

A Fellowship for Physicians Seeking Specialized Training

As a leader in health care, AdventHealth is committed to sharing our high level of expertise with future palliative care providers. The AdventHealth Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship offers you the opportunity to collaborate with health care leaders to care for patients of all ages and disease stages, meeting their physical, emotional and spiritual needs.

During this year-long fellowship, you’ll work with physicians who are respected leaders in advanced illness management, which includes:

Advanced heart failure transplant and LVAD
Organ transplant
Coordinated care for kids
Critical care medicine and neurocritical care
Oncology

The AdventHealth Orlando family — which includes the large AdventHealth Orlando Hospital campus and AdventHealth Hospice — serves a socially and culturally diverse population.

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The 2024 Palliative Medicine APP Fellowship Program

In addition to the AdventHealth Hospice and Palliative Medicine Physician Fellowship, we offer a fellowship program at AdventHealth Orlando designed specifically for advanced practice providers (APPs).

A 12-month interprofessional postgraduate program, our 2024 Palliative Medicine APP Fellowship Program will provide APPs with a deeper understanding of how palliative medicine can help ease serious illnesses and meet each patient’s unique needs.

With rotations at different AdventHealth campuses and a focus on hospice, oncology and end-stage conditions, this program will give fellows hands-on training in symptom management and whole-person care in body, mind and spirit.

A young nurse and her female cancer patient taking a sweet selfie.

A cancer diagnosis can be overwhelming for you and your family. But imagine a world-class team of oncologists, physicians, counselors and wellness experts by your side every step of the way.

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Inpatient Palliative Care

Making a Difference in Your Health Care Experience

Supportive Care Comfort at Any Stage of Illness

Hear Tish’s Story: Palliative Care and Quality of Life

Importance of Advance Care Planning

About Palliative Care

The Parable of the Good Samaritan

Our Interdisciplinary Palliative Care Team

A Fellowship for Physicians Seeking Specialized Training

The 2024 Palliative Medicine APP Fellowship Program

Related Services and Events AdventHealth Cancer Care

Inpatient Palliative Care

Making a Difference in Your Health Care Experience

Supportive Care Comfort at Any Stage of Illness

Hear Tish’s Story: Palliative Care and Quality of Life

Importance of Advance Care Planning

About Palliative Care

The Parable of the Good Samaritan

Our Central Florida Locations Near You

AdventHealth Orlando

AdventHealth Kissimmee

AdventHealth Apopka

AdventHealth Altamonte Springs

AdventHealth Winter Park

AdventHealth East Orlando

Our Interdisciplinary Palliative Care Team

A Fellowship for Physicians Seeking Specialized Training

The 2024 Palliative Medicine APP Fellowship Program

Related Services and Events AdventHealth Cancer Care