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 Home Nursing Agency Hosts Palliative Care Seminar ALTOONA, PA - Home Nursing Agency hosted a two-day Palliative Care Seminar in June for the region's healthcare professionals in preparation for the upcoming opening of the Agency's Palliative Care Program, in conjunction with the Altoona Regional Health System. The mission of Home Nursing Agency's Palliative Care initiative is to assist, provide and direct care to individuals with a serious chronic illness while offering a bridge between an aggressive pursuit of curative treatment and the hospice philosophy of ensuring an individual with a terminal illness lives as comfortably and pain free as possible. Encompassing several aspects, the program's main objectives are treating pain, symptoms and stress, providing support for daily living, helping patients/ families make difficult medical decisions and offering a level of coordination that responds to the episodic and long-term nature of illnesses such as congestive heart failure and diabetes. Leading the seminar were David E. Weissman, M.D. from the Center for Advanced Palliative Care Leadership in Wisconsin along with Sandra Muchka, RN, MS, CS, CHPN, a Clinical Nurse Specialist for the Palliative Care Program at the Medical College of Wisconsin. They provided an extensive overview of the skills, content, knowledge, perspective and tools necessary to effectively launch, maintain and market a hospital-based palliative care program. A recent study indicates that of the 2.3 million people who die in the United States each year, more than 80 percent of them die in hospitals or other institutions. All too often, people are alone, in pain and attached to machines. (SUPPORT Study 1995) Such acute treatment for a patient with a chronic, life limiting illness, although intended to prolong life, may instead prolong and depersonalize the process of dying. Thereby, the purpose of Agency's palliative care is to improve the quality of life by allowing the patient to be in control of their plan of care. This freedom includes giving the patient the ability to determine what they mean by 'quality of life'. The number of academic, community, and faith-based hospitals offering palliative care services is growing rapidly. The American Hospital Association reports 17 percent of registered community hospitals have palliative care programs, and at least 26 percent of U.S. academic teaching hospitals have a palliative care consultation service. 
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