Heart Failure (HF) is a life-limiting condition which causes symptoms beyond the physical
manifestations of cardiac dysfunction. HF can significantly impact patients' quality of life
(QOL), which is often not addressed in standard regimes of HF care. QOL encompasses the
individual's physical, functional, psychological, and social aspects of life. The specialty of
palliative care (PC) addresses all these aspects and can significantly improve a patient’s QOL.
PC is underutilized for patients with HF due to the non-linear progression of the disease and the
general uncertainty of the prognosis. The aim of this integrative review was to explore the
impacts of early integration of outpatient PC on the QOL of patients with HF. Findings
demonstrate that outpatient PC can positively impact the QOL of HF patients and can be
introduced early in the disease process, even when patients are receiving life-prolonging
treatment. PC can improve measures of overall QOL, palliative symptom burden, HF symptom
burden, and depression in this populations. Primary care providers can implement the early
introduction of PC for their HF patients to preserve their QOL despite their current prognosis.
