Put another way, Palliative Care's approach is to favor process over product. For example, as a Palliative clinician, sometimes I am consulted to quote “...get the DNR...” (aka a consultant believes that CPR is an unrealistic intervention for their patient for what could be a wide variety of reasons; and that consultant would like help addressing that concern). When I get that consult, I’ve already failed with communicating if my marker for success is leaving that room with a change in code status. Instead a Palliative Care clinician puts the outcome aside to instead listen to and understand what this patient’s goals are, and how those goals may be related to CPR. And a successful encounter is when BOTH the patient AND the clinician leave that conversation with a deeper appreciation for the other person’s perspective; better able to make informed decisions in the future, regardless of the outcome. And maybe the code status changes as a result of a deeper appreciation from both sides, or maybe it doesn’t. But the final outcome of Full Code vs DNR is not the point.
