Standards of palliative care in a renal care setting.

Palliative care has been described as the active total care of patients whose disease is not responsive to curative treatment. The principles of palliative care are applicable to patients living with non-malignant disease such as end stage renal failure. This paper describes the development of standards of palliative care in a renal care setting. It emphasises the need for a multidisciplinary basis for palliative care and specifies standards of practice in six core areas: Assessment and Referral, Pain and Symptom Control, Communication and giving information, Sexuality, Spirituality and Bereavement.