UNDERSTANDING
Palliative
Care
07.2025
Understanding Wound Care in Palliative Care
REMEMBER - Palliative wound care isn’t about chasing healing
It’s about honouring the individual, easing their discomfort, and ensuring each moment is treated with respect and comfort.
Types of Wounds You May Encounter
In palliative care, wounds come in many forms — from pressure injuries and skin tears to diabetic, arterial, or venous ulcers, and even malignant-fungating wounds in cancer patients. These may be acute or chronic, and understanding their type helps guide compassionate care and symptom relief.
What Makes Palliative Wound Care Unique?
Unlike wound care with healing as the goal, care in a palliative setting prioritises comfort, symptom control, and quality of life for the patient. This includes managing pain, odour, bleeding, infection, and excessive drainage — with dignity at the heart of every decision.
Key Steps in Compassionate Wound Care
1. Holistic Assessment
A full wound evaluation should include wound size, exudate, tissue type, odor, pain level, and impact on surrounding skin—alongside the patient’s overall condition and comfort goals.
2. Define the Healing Potential
Wounds may be:
o Healable: tissue can regenerate if conditions allow o Maintenance: healing is possible but impaired o Non-healable: focus shifts entirely to comfort
3. Comfort-Driven Symptom Management
Interventions like selecting gentle dressings, using topical analgesics, and minimizing painful procedures can dramatically improve the patient’s experience.
4. Create a Supportive Environment
Position the patient carefully, use pressure-relieving mattresses or cushions, keep skin clean and dry, and apply moisturisers where needed to reduce breakdown.
Why It Matters
While curing some wounds may not always be possible, addressing symptoms compassionately can restore dignity, ease suffering, and bring peace to both patients and families.
In palliative care, wounds come in many forms — from pressure injuries and skin tears to diabetic, arterial, or venous ulcers, and even malignant-fungating wounds in cancer patients. These may be acute or chronic, and understanding their type helps guide compassionate care and symptom relief.
What Makes Palliative Wound Care Unique?
Unlike wound care with healing as the goal, care in a palliative setting prioritises comfort, symptom control, and quality of life for the patient. This includes managing pain, odour, bleeding, infection, and excessive drainage — with dignity at the heart of every decision.
Key Steps in Compassionate Wound Care
1. Holistic Assessment
A full wound evaluation should include wound size, exudate, tissue type, odor, pain level, and impact on surrounding skin—alongside the patient’s overall condition and comfort goals.
2. Define the Healing Potential
Wounds may be:
o Healable: tissue can regenerate if conditions allow o Maintenance: healing is possible but impaired o Non-healable: focus shifts entirely to comfort
3. Comfort-Driven Symptom Management
Interventions like selecting gentle dressings, using topical analgesics, and minimizing painful procedures can dramatically improve the patient’s experience.
4. Create a Supportive Environment
Position the patient carefully, use pressure-relieving mattresses or cushions, keep skin clean and dry, and apply moisturisers where needed to reduce breakdown.
Why It Matters
While curing some wounds may not always be possible, addressing symptoms compassionately can restore dignity, ease suffering, and bring peace to both patients and families.