I encourage every hospitalist to embrace palliative care for the benefits it will bestow on our patients and their families, for the benefits it will bestow on us, and for the benefits it will bestow on our entire field. As president of SHM, I will do all I can to help SHM promote palliative care, beginning with the newly appointed Palliative Care Task Force. Ultimately, palliative care is about demonstrating caring for our patients and our families. It reminds us that life is precious and that it is important to choose how we spend our time. This last lesson is, perhaps, the greatest gift of palliative care— learning to make the most of the time we have, embodied in this anonymous poem I received from a friend via email:
Sing like no one is listening.
Dance like no one is watching.
Work like you don’t need the money.
Love like you’ve never been hurt.