Background: End-of-life (EOL) care for a child is a high-stakes situation that requires careful planning and practice; there is only one chance to get it right. Additionally, distress is often high in those caring for dying children. Despite the fact…
Purpose/Objective(s): Few studies have examined the use of palliative radiation therapy (RT) in the pediatric population. This single institution study is one of the largest series reported of palliative RT practice patterns prior to and within the…
Age is often used to determine when children can begin completing patient-reported outcome (PRO) instruments or transition to adult instruments. This study’s purpose was to determine relationships between literacy, age, and race and their influence…
Background/objectives: Ethical challenges in pediatric oncology arise at every stage of illness. However, there are sparse data on the content of and reason for ethics consultations in the field. We sought to evaluate the content and characteristics…
The study was to describe the essence of the lived experience of parents with a child with incurable cancer at the end of life (EOL). A descriptive phenomenological study was conducted with ten parents of children with incurable cancer in a medical…
This groundbreaking study focuses on the link between music-therapy and narrativity in a pediatric hematology-oncology unit. The goal is to observe and analyse the psychic processes in this therapeutic mediation. We aim to study the creative…
INTRODUCTION: Grief among bereaved parents is known to cause psychological distress and physical illness, but knowledge concerning factors that can contribute to health promotion after bereavement is scarce. Childhood cancer remains the most common…
Purpose: Adolescents and young adults (AYAs) with terminal cancer are a marginalized population with unique medical and psychosocial needs. AYAs commonly report challenges with their health care experiences, however, little is known about the…
Background: Empirical descriptions of a 'good death' exist for older adults with cancer, and these have served as the foundation for providing quality end of life care. In contrast, little is known about what, if anything, constitutes a 'good death'…
It is important for the health care community to understand the impact of a child’s death on parent functioning. Yet involving bereaved parents in research that enquires about such a stressful time in their life can potentially bring harm to them.…
OBJECTIVE: to identify, in scientific productions, nursing interventions in palliative care in children and adolescents with cancer. METHOD: integrative review of the literature through the databases: CINAHL, MEDLINE, IBECS, LILACS and SCIELO,…
Background: Prior work in adult oncology suggests minority patients are less involved in decision making than preferred. However, few studies have explored decision-making experiences of minority parents in pediatric oncology. Objective: To determine…
BACKGROUND: Despite growing evidence and support for shared decision making, little is known about the experiences of parents who hold more active roles than they wish. METHODS: This was a prospective cohort study of 372 parents of children with…
Background: Legacy-making (i.e., a way for patients with terminal illness to create or do something for others as a means of remembrance) is rising in popularity in palliative medicine, although only one study has examined its impact in a pediatric…
OBJECTIVE: To understand the meanings assigned by bereaved parents to their relationships with healthcare professionals during the end-of-life hospitalization of their child. METHOD: Qualitative-interpretative study based on hermeneutics. Data were…
A growing evidence base highlights the negative impact of poor psychosocial care at end-of-life. Adolescents and young adults (AYAs) 15-39 years of age with cancer face unique medical and psychosocial challenges that make them especially vulnerable…
Introduction: For children with cancer, early integration of pediatric palliative care in conjunction with curative treatments is recommended. In Switzerland, pediatric palliative care is mostly provided by an interdisciplinary primary oncology team…
Background: To the authors' knowledge, end-of-life (EOL) care outcomes among adolescents and young adults (AYAs) with cancer who are living in poverty remain poorly understood. The primary aim of the current study was to examine the effect of poverty…
Children with cancer and their families experience shifts in spiritual wellness from diagnosis through treatment and survivorship or bereavement. An interdisciplinary team conducted a systematic review of quantitative and qualitative research on…
Background: Efforts to improve the quality of end-of-life (EOL) care depend on better knowledge of the care that children, adolescents, and young adults with cancer receive, including high-intensity EOL (HI-EOL) care. The objective was to assess the…
Background and purpose: This study describes clinical outcomes of palliative radiation therapy (RT)for children treated in distinct health-care environments-the US where there is advanced integration of palliative resources and Brazil, a country in…
Background: Despite advances in pediatric oncology care, most children that die each year from cancer report significant suffering at end-of-life. Commonly reported symptoms include pain, anxiety, and nausea. More than half of pediatric cancer…
There is a distinct lack of literature related to the spiritual care of parents whose children with cancer are at the end of life. This has led to a dearth in evidence about how nurses may intervene with spiritual care interventions to best support…
Medical marijuana (MM) is widespread in many medical fields, including oncology, with limited use in pediatric oncology where research is scarce and often shows conflicting results. This research focuses on alleviating side effects of anticancer…
Background: Assessing the quality of life (QoL) of children receiving end-of-life (EoL) care through evaluations by the children and their bereaved families is challenging; presently, there is no QoL assessment measure that is appropriate for use in…
Background: Community hospitals represent a unique setting to provide pediatric palliative care (PPC), given their usual proximity to a patient's home. Texas Children's Hospital, TheWoodlands (TCH-TW) is a community-based campus that opened in April…
BACKGROUND: Clinicians are the standard source for adverse event (AE) reporting in oncology trials, despite the subjective nature of symptomatic AEs. The authors designed a pediatric patient-reported outcome (PRO) instrument for symptomatic AEs to…
BACKGROUND: Systematic symptom assessment is not a standard of care in children with cancer. Many well-known symptom assessment tools are lengthy or difficult to integrate into a daily pediatric palliative care practice. We created a series of brief…
Adolescent and young adults diagnosed with cancer represent a vulnerable population needing careful collaborative care from interprofessional teams. Healthcare providers must understand and appreciate the respective scopes of practice of palliative…
Background: It is difficult to perceive the preparation of a good death for children because of its social and cultural issues. Among the children with serious diseases, they can be alienated and the whole processes are done by the decision of the…
BACKGROUND:: Racial and ethnic disparities in the provision of end-of-life care are well described in the adult oncology literature. However, the impact of racial and ethnic disparities at end of life in the context of pediatric oncology remains…
Introduction: Parents' needs of support following the loss of a child to cancer and whether these needs are met are not fully known. This study aimed to describe parents' needs, opportunity, and benefit of support from healthcare professionals and…
CONTEXT: Patient preferences influence end-of-life (EOL) care which patients receive. However, preferences regarding EOL care among adolescent and young adult (AYA) cancer population remain unclear. OBJECTIVE(S): The objective of the study was to…
Background: Pediatric patients with cancer have many opportunities for increased primary or specialty palliative care (PC). This is particularly true for patients with solid tumors who often have higher symptom burden and worse outcomes. However, how…
Background: Care teams are increasingly expected to attend to the needs of patient's personal caregivers (e.g., family members). Improving communication among oncologists, patients with advanced cancer, and their personal caregivers might enhance…
This mixed method study explored parent and child characteristics that impact grief and personal growth in parents (n = 119) after a child dies from cancer in Australia. Medical components of a child's cancer care including radiation treatment,…
Background: Health care providers' perception of pediatric palliative care might negatively influence timely implementation. The aim of the study was to examine understanding of and attitudes towards pediatric palliative care from the perspective of…
Purpose: To analyse the preference of end of life care place in paediatric oncology patients, and to understand the end of life care needs and regrets among the care givers. Method(s): This was an observational qualitative study. Parents of…
Pediatric phase I clinical oncology trials represent a unique cohort of patients who have not responded to standard therapies and remain highly vulnerable to treatment toxicity and/or disease burden. Incorporating a palliative care consultation into…
Background: Children with chronic conditions, including cancer, have been shown to have high-intensity end-of-life care. We assessed the frequency and timing of invasive procedures that children with cancer undergo during their terminal hospital…
