Many people have strong beliefs regarding feeding and end of life care. It is imperative to examine the goals of care with patients when making end of life care decisions and to remember that there will be a number of social, cultural and religious factors to be considered. Enlisting help from palliative care physicians, chaplaincy and other professionals with experience in helping make these decisions is often very important.
An article that examines some important points surrounding the use of feeding tubes in severe dementia is posted here. We often dont focus on promoting oral intake in hospital, but it is important to consider strategies to address this as well.
An article reviewing artificial nutrition and hydration at the end of life can be found here (Pub med abstract) or here (if logged through the university libraries)
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