What Comfort Care Includes
Comfort care typically covers pain management, symptom relief, and emotional support. It also includes basic nursing care that keeps the patient comfortable. It does not include treatments aimed at curing the underlying condition. Life-extending measures such as ventilators or feeding tubes are not part of comfort care.
Why It Matters in a Health Care Directive
When someone creates a health care directive or living will, they often request comfort care. This applies when curative treatment is no longer effective. Understanding what comfort care means under Arizona law helps make the directive accurate. A well-drafted directive distinguishes between requesting comfort care and refusing all treatment. Those are two very different instructions.