Table 1.

Palliative Care Services Provided in Different Settings

Palliative Care Settinga	Description of Setting
Inpatient palliative care unit	Provides specialist inpatient palliative care. It can be a ward within, or adjacent to, a hospital, or a free standing building. In some countries, it is called an inpatient hospice.
Hospital palliative care team	Provides specialist palliative care advice and support to other clinical staff, patients and their families and carers in the hospital environment. They offer formal and informal education and liaise with other services in and out of the hospital.
Home palliative care team	Provides specialist palliative care to patients who need it at home, or in care homes or residential homes, and support their families and carers. They also provide specialist advice to general practitioners, family doctors and nurses caring for the patients.
Home nursing	Provides intensive home nursing care for the patient at home, sometimes referred to as hospice or hospital at home, often supporting patients whose care needs are such that without this they would be admitted to an inpatient palliative care unit or hospital.

^aPalliative care and hospice services have multiprofessional teams of dedicated staff trained in palliative care, comprising doctors, nurses, and often social workers and therapists. They provide expertise in pain and symptom management, holistic and psychosocial care, decision making, advance care planning, end of life care and often bereavement support. They include support in the settings described above (one service may provide support in one or more settings).