In a field that strives to care for patients and families together, what can palliative care clinicians do when patients' families are physically absent? The Covid-19 pandemic has put both literal and figurative walls between health care professionals and families. How health care workers respond to these disconnections might have a lasting impact on patients, on families, and on our practice. Recently, I saw this in the case of a patient our palliative care team was consulted to see. Mr. B was minimally responsive and dying from multisystem organ failure of unclear etiology. As in other cases during this pandemic, our team became a facilitator of interaction between the patient and the physically absent family, seeing an intimacy we normally would not, in this case, by being present while our intern held the phone to Mr. B's ear for an end-of-life call from his wife, son, and daughter. Such moments force us clinicians to be even more present for our families and patients, and they allow us to bear witness to the strength and sadness and love that we might otherwise miss.
在一个努力共同照顾患者和家庭的领域，当患者的家属不在场时，姑息治疗临床医生能做些什么？新冠疫情大流行在医护人员和家庭之间筑起了实实在在和无形的墙。医护人员对这些脱节的反应可能会对患者、家庭和我们的实践产生持久的影响。最近，我在我们姑息治疗团队咨询的一位患者的病例中看到了这一点。B 先生反应迟钝，多器官功能衰竭，病因不明，生命垂危。在这次大流行期间的其他病例中，我们的团队成为了患者和不在场的家属之间互动的促进者，看到了我们通常不会看到的亲密关系，在这种情况下，我们的住院医师在患者耳边拿着电话，让他的妻子、儿子和女儿与他进行临终通话。这些时刻迫使我们的临床医生更加关注我们的家庭和患者，让我们有机会见证我们可能错过的力量、悲伤和爱。
