Society guideline links: Palliative care

Introduction — 

This topic includes links to society and government-sponsored guidelines from selected countries and regions around the world. We will update these links periodically; newer versions of some guidelines may be available on each society's website. Some societies may require users to log in to access their guidelines.

The recommendations in the following guidelines may vary from those that appear in UpToDate topic reviews. Readers who are looking for UpToDate topic reviews should use the UpToDate search box to find the relevant content.

Links to related guidelines are provided separately:

●(See "Society guideline links: Bowel obstruction".)

●(See "Society guideline links: Cancer pain".)

●(See "Society guideline links: Colorectal cancer".)

●(See "Society guideline links: Constipation".)

●(See "Society guideline links: Dyspnea".)

●(See "Society guideline links: Hepatocellular carcinoma".)

●(See "Society guideline links: HIV treatment in nonpregnant adults".)

●(See "Society guideline links: Neuropathic pain".)

●(See "Society guideline links: Ovarian, fallopian tube, and peritoneal cancer".)

●(See "Society guideline links: Pancreatic cancer".)

●(See "Society guideline links: Cognitive impairment and dementia".)

●(See "Society guideline links: Heart failure in adults".)

●(See "Society guideline links: Parkinson disease".)

●(See "Society guideline links: Management of bone metastases in solid tumors".)

●(See "Society guideline links: Palliative care for advanced lung disease".)

●(See "Society guideline links: Intensive care unit ethics".)

●(See "Society guideline links: Metastatic disease of the central nervous system".)

●(See "Society guideline links: Parkinsonian syndromes".)

International

●International Association for Hospice and Palliative Care (IAHPC): The manual of palliative care, 3rd edition (2013)

Canada

●BC Guidelines: Guidelines on palliative care

●Canadian Paediatric Society (CPS): Position statement on goals of care conversations and advance care planning for paediatric patients living with serious illness (2024)

United States

●National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO): Position statements

●American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO): Guideline on palliative care for patients with cancer, update (2024)

●American Academy of Neurology (AAN): Clinical guidance in neuropalliative care – Position statement (2022)

●American Thoracic Society (ATS)/American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine (AAHPM)/Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association (HPNA)/Social Work Hospice and Palliative Care Network (SWHPN): Policy statement for palliative care early in the care continuum among patients with serious respiratory illness (2022)

●United States best practice guidelines for primary palliative care in the emergency department (2021)

●ASCO: Resource-stratified practice guideline on palliative care in the global setting (2018)

●National Coalition for Hospice and Palliative Care (NCHPC): Clinical practice guidelines for quality palliative care, 4th edition (2018)

●ASCO: Consensus guideline on patient-clinician communication (2017)

Europe

●European Society of Intensive Care Medicine (ESICM): Guidelines on end of life and palliative care in the intensive care unit (2024)

●European Respiratory Society (ERS): Clinical practice guideline on palliative care for people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or interstitial lung disease (2023)

●European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO): Clinical practice guidelines on care of the adult cancer patient at the end of life (2021)

United Kingdom

●National Health Service Scotland (NHS Scotland): Scottish palliative care guidelines

●National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE): Quality standard on end of life care for adults (2011, updated 2021)

●NICE: Guideline on end of life care for adults – Service delivery (2019)

●NICE: Guideline on end of life care for infants, children, and young people with life-limiting conditions – Planning and management (2016, updated 2019)

●NICE: Quality standard on end of life care for infants, children, and young people (2017)

●NICE: Clinical guideline on palliative care for adults – Strong opioids for pain relief (2012, updated 2016)

●NICE: Guideline on care of dying adults in the last days of life (2015)

India

●Indian Academy of Pediatrics (IAP): Consensus statement on end-of-life care (2017)

Australia–New Zealand

●Palliative Care Australia (PCA): National palliative care standards, 5.1 edition (2024)

●Choosing Wisely Australia: Do not delay discussion of and referral to palliative care for a patient with serious illness just because they are pursuing disease-directed treatment (2016)

●Choosing Wisely Australia: Don't initiate and continue medicines for primary prevention in individuals who have a limited life expectancy (2016)

●Choosing Wisely Australia: Stop medicines when no further benefit will be achieved or the potential harms outweigh the potential benefits for the individual patient (2016)

●Choosing Wisely Australia: Target referrals to bereavement services for family and caregivers of patients in palliative care settings to those experiencing more complicated forms of grief rather than as a routine practice (2016)

●Choosing Wisely Australia: For emergency department patients approaching end-of-life, ensure clinicians, patients and families have a common understanding of the goals of care (2015)

●Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society (ANZICS): Statement on care and decision-making at the end of life for the critically ill (2014)

Japan

●[In Japanese] Japanese Society for Palliative Medicine (JSPM): Guidelines

●[In Japanese] Choosing Wisely Japan: Palliative care support during serious illness (2015)