Alexandra Marine and General Hospital at present have two palliative committees. One is a hospital Palliative Committee which meets the first Monday every other month here in the hospital. The second committee is the Community Rounds which meets the third Thursday of each month at North Street United Church.

We also have CAPCE nurses in our hospital who are trained in Palliative Care.

Alexandra Marine and General Hospital has also provided an information booklet for palliative patients and their family about 'When Comfort Becomes the Focus of Care'.

With the generous financial help from the Goderich IODE we now have a beautiful Palliative room on the second floor with a new palliative room planed for First Floor. This room provides a home like comfort for both the patient and their family. On First Floor you will also find the Reflection Room. This room is a quiet room where you can go to do some thinking, speak with a Doctor or have a family meeting. It provides you with a place to be outside of a hospital room.

For more information on Spiritual Needs.

Terms you may hear and what they mean:

ESAS- Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale- this scale is done by the patient on a daily basis to help us know how to assist our patients. Symptom and pain management is very important to make our patients have a comfortable stay. Having symptoms and pain controlled also allows for more quality time with visitors.

PPS-Palliative Performance Scale-is a percentage that measure your activities of daily living. This is a nursing practice.

CAPCE-Comprehensive Advanced Palliative Care Education- We have nurses trained with palliative pain and symptom management. They work with the other health care providers to manage your symptoms and pain.

Pain- Pain in an individual. It is what the patient says it is. Your nurses might ask you to rate your pain on a scale form 0-10 with 10 being the worst possible pain. There are different types of pain and we hope to treat the pain in according to what we see and what you tell us it feels like.

For more information about our palliative services contact our Clinical Lead at 519-524-8689 at Ext 5222.