CARE: A holistic approach toward patients during pandemic: Through the eyes of a palliative physician

Abstract

Words pandemic and panic, if cannot be used synonymously, can definitely be exchanged metaphorically. Pandemics are outcome of an unanticipated crisis, therefore it is always associated with panic and hence it requires a comprehensive approach to get resolved. On the contrary, during the event of an overwhelming pandemic, due to lack of protocols, the entire health-care system faces crisis and it becomes a tedious task to reallocate and reschedule the resource and knowledge for the uninterrupted and smooth delivery of services. Therefore, pandemics need an evidence-based subjective approach toward the patient and family members for addressal and resolution of complex issues arisen due to the disease. A good contingency plan and approach for combating a pandemic is the utmost solution for providing complete holistic care. A comprehensive care approach model is the need of the hour to provide the holistic care during pandemics. In this article, we propose a model of CARE approach that can be useful in providing holistic care during the times of pandemic.