Sage Palliative Medicine & Chronic Care

This episode features Madeleine Juhrmann (Northern Clinical School, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia. HammondCare Centre for Learning and Research in Palliative Care, Greenwich Hospital, Greenwich, NSW, Australia). Global demand for palliative care is increasing and the reliance on exclusively specialist hospital-based care is becoming unsustainable. Community preferences also favour home-based deaths. Paramedics are in a unique position to help deliver palliative and end-of-life care in the home, especially after-hours for palliative care emergencies. However, their role is traditionally limited to providing life-sustaining interventions for acute emergencies and conveyance to hospital. No overview of the role paramedics play in delivering palliative and end-of-life care in community-based settings currently exists. The findings of the review suggest paramedics can play an important role in providing emergency support to patients approaching end-of-life, help facilitate home-based deaths, and