Renan Gianotto Oliveira, third-year resident in Emergency Medicine at School of Medical Sciences (SMS), University of Campinas (Unicamp), did an internship in Palliative Care at the Portuguese Institute of Oncology (IPO), in Coimbra, Portugal, on August 2019.

The main focus of this specialty is to relieve pain and control symptoms and to improve the quality of care for patients, their families, and the healthcare system. It is holistic, patient-centered, comprehensive, and multidimensional so that it addresses not only the physical aspect, but also the psychological, social, and spiritual dimensions. 

In this internship doctor Renan was under supervision of doctor Óscar Vilão, director of the Internal Medicine and Palliative Care service, and assistant doctors Marta Amaral and Rui Silva. The service has 20 beds for patients who do not have cancer treatment and need to control their clinical condition, whether pain, anemia, weakness, nausea, or even hospitalization due to exhaustion of the caregiver.

There is a hot tub to provide comfort to patients who can use it, a 24-hour doctor on the ward and one companion per patient is allowed full time. In addition, there are outpatient consultations in which patients in palliative care are monitored, laboratory tests are evaluated, pain, symptoms and the need for hospitalization or adjustments to medications is made.

This Palliative Care service is part of a very active multidisciplinary team. Well-trained nurses, chaplaincy service, psychologists with specific training to care for patients and families, social worker assistants aware of the needs of each patient and their family make up the palliative care team of the IPO in Coimbra. 

Renan told: “I was very well received by all staff, had the opportunity to accompany patients in the ward and participate in outpatient consultations and know a little about the functioning of the national health service of Portugal. It was a very special experience, because besides learning techniques and treatments in Palliative Care, I had the opportunity to be present and make the end of life of some patients a little better”.