Background/aims: Neurological conditions, such as cerebral palsy and muscular dystrophy, are the main diagnoses of referral for many pediatric palliative care teams. Nevertheless, parents of children with such conditions globally report insufficient…
INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES: To identify the knowledge of caregivers of pediatric intensive care units (PICUs) on the French law related to patients' rights and end of life, their views on withholding/withdrawing life-sustaining treatment (WWLST)…
In the GRADE approach, the strength of a recommendation reflects the extent to which we can be confident that the composite desirable effects of a management strategy outweigh the composite undesirable effects. This article addresses GRADE's approach…
Palliative care is the interdisciplinary specialty that aims to relieve suffering and improve the quality of care for patients with serious illness and their families. Although palliative care programs are becoming increasingly prevalent in U.S.…
OBJECTIVE: To develop a practical set of measures for routine monitoring, performance feedback, and improvement in the quality of palliative care in the intensive care unit (ICU). DESIGN: Use of an interdisciplinary iterative process to create a…
Child and family involvement is key to improving the quality of children's hospice services. This article reports on a quality assurance initiative undertaken as one component of a clinical governance strategy. Service users participated in focus…
Improving the quality of end-of-life care has become a national health care priority. A necessary step in this process in the pediatric intensive care unit (ICU) is examining the knowledge, attitudes,and behaviors of pediatric critical care…
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the treatment integrity of Family-Focused Grief Therapy (FFGT), a preventive intervention designed for families at high risk of poor functioning during palliative care and bereavement. From the 81 families…
We surveyed primary care physicians about their involvement and perceived skills in palliative care. A survey instrument asked how frequently internal medicine and family practice physicians performed 10 palliative care items. Subjects rated their…
PURPOSE: Despite multiple efforts to improve the experience for dying patients, researchers still struggle to identify appropriate outcome measures that assess patients' and families' experiences. If health care systems are to provide excellent,…
The Paediatric Pain Profile is a tool that has been developed specially to help in assessing and monitoring pain in children with severe neurological impairments, especially those with impairments which lead them to be unable to communicate pain…
As the goals of palliative cancer treatments have not always been clearly specified, this paper describes how frequently the goals of palliative cancer treatment can be specified according to a given definition and how frequently those specified…
Measurement is a fundamental step in improving the quality of care for dying patients and their families. Yet, there are important methodological challenges to be addressed. In conducting surveys about the patient and family experience, research is…
OBJECTIVES: To compare pediatric intensive care unit (ICU) mortality risk using models from two distinct time periods; and to discuss the implications of changing mortality risk for severity systems and quality-of-care assessment. DATA SOURCES AND…
This study reports the process and results of a psychometric evaluation of a clinical audit tool, the Support Team Assessment Schedule (STAS), used to measure outcomes of palliative care. The STAS was developed in London, UK to audit community…
We report a prospective study assessing the prevalence and severity of physical and nonphysical symptoms, and the benefits from treatment and intervention, in advanced cancer patients presenting to a local palliative care unit in Hong Kong. Patients…
This review considers some of the difficulties associated with quality assurance in the context of palliative care. In particular, it will focus on the key question of who should be responsible for assessing quality and the problems of over-reliance…
