The Development And Evaluation Of A Holistic Needs Assessment Within Children’s Palliative Care.

The Development And Evaluation Of A Holistic Needs Assessment Within Children’s Palliative Care.

Hartley G; Berger Z; Maynard L

International Journal Of Palliative Nursing

2016

Child; Holistic Nursing; Humans; Needs Assessment; Palliative Care; Pilot Projects

Assessment; Holistic; Pediatrics; Palliative; Qualitative

Caring for a child with a life-limiting condition brings a number of challenges and many families require additional support. The need for services to move away from a 'one size fits all' approach to a personalised care planning approach is well recognised, as is the value of establishing a robust way of assessing family members' differing needs. A number of assessment tools that consider individuals' holistic needs already exist. These are predominantly for the adult cancer population and exclude consideration of the child in its system. There was therefore a need to develop a tool that would appropriately meet the needs of children and parents who access services provided by a children's hospice. The tool was evaluated qualitatively. Feedback was positive; the experience of professionals was one of concordance with their ethical stance, improved communication, improved documentation and the wish to embed the tool into daily practice.

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May 2016 List