Using the media to promote palliative care.

摘要

Last weekend, -while attending a concert in Jinja, Uganda, I was asked what job I did, when I explained that I worked in palliative care, there was a pause followed by the question, 'what do you mean by palliative care?'. I proceeded to explain what palliative care is and what I, as a palliative care nurse, do. To many of us this is a familiar story when asked what we do-we are either greeted with comments such as 'how depressing', 'that must be really hard', people do not know what palliative care is, or worse still they change the subject immediately, thus posing the question: how do we portray the image of palliative care? What is the image that is portrayed about palliative care in the media, thus influencing the public's views and understanding of palliative care?