Pain and Symptom Management

Adequate pain management is described as central to dying well, and freedom from pain and other symptoms is reported as the public's top wish for the end of life. Adequate pain relief ranked as the highest-priority issue in Survey 2 but fell to priority 22 after workshop discussion. Timely symptom management was included in the final priority list, but some specific individual symptoms raised in survey responses did not make it. Workshop consensus using 20 participants can substantially alter rankings relative to the 626-respondent survey, as demonstrated by the shift in pain relief's position.