Abstract

Palliative care is primarily directed at providing relief to a terminally-ill person through symptom and pain management. The goal is not to cure, but to provide comfort and maintain the highest possible quality of life for as long as life remains. The focus is not on death, but on compassionate specialized care for the living. Palliative care functions best within an interdisciplinary team model that includes pharmacists playing a vital role in improving therapy compliance and outcomes.Pharmacists are practicing palliative care in a number of settings that include hospice, home care, out-patient treatment centers and hospitals. Palliative care often follows as a parallel track to the therapy for the disease.
Palliative Pharmacy Care serves both as an aid to practitioners and a teaching text. Each chapter contains at least one case study with questions, key points, and clinical pearls. Inside you’ll find:

• A solid foundation for the history and principles of the area of practice as well as more advanced sections on specific treatment issues such as cancer and pediatrics.
• Symptom-management overviews for specific diseases and general health problems related to terminal illness such as anxiety, fatigue, and constipation.
• Pain management guidelines on topics such pathophysiology and pharmacology, nociceptive pain, neuropathic pain, equianalgesic dosing/opioid rotation, secretion management, and "death rattle."
• A discussion on the future of pharmacists in palliative care, setting up palliative care services and other general issues and concerns for pharmacists providing this service.  

And much more.
Jennifer M. Strickland, PharmD, BCPS

Director of Pharmacy, Lakeland Regional Medical Center
Lakeland, Florida
Assistant Clinical Professor
University of Florida College of Pharmacy
Gainesville, Florida

Dr. Strickland received her doctor of pharmacy degree with highest honors from the University of Florida College of Pharmacy, Gainesville, Florida. She completed a specialty pharmacy residency in pain management and subsequently was the pharmacist for the Pain and Palliative Care Service at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center for six years. Dr. Strickland then went on to develop a pain and psychiatry outpatient clinic specializing in the chronic pain patient with comorbid psychiatric conditions or addictions. She is an assistant clinical professor for the University of Florida College of Pharmacy and is the director of a specialty pharmacy residency in pain and palliative care.

Dr. Strickland is board certified in pharmacotherapy (BCPS) by the Board of Pharmaceutical Sciences, and is a member of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy PRN Pain Management Committee. In addition, she is a member of the American Pain Society (APS), the American Society of Health-Systems Pharmacists (ASHP), the Florida Pain Initiative (FCPI), and the Florida Society of Health-Systems Pharmacists (FSHP). She has published in the areas of pain management and palliative care and is a national speaker on these subjects.