End-of-life care in the pediatric intensive care unit: research review and recommendations

End-of-life care in the pediatric intensive care unit: research review and recommendations

Burns JP; Rushton CH

Critical Care Clinics

2004

Child; Humans; Intensive Care Units; Adult; Attitude of Health Personnel; Attitude to Death; Infant Mortality; Evidence-Based Medicine; Forecasting; Practice; bereavement; Attitudes; decision making; infant; Practice Guidelines; Health Knowledge; ICU Decision Making; Parents/psychology; United States/epidemiology; Quality Assurance; Analgesia/ethics/standards; Conscious Sedation/ethics/standards; Health Care/organization & administration; Intensive Care/ethics/organization & administration/psychology; Pediatric/ethics/organization & administration; Resuscitation/ethics/standards; Terminal Care/ethics/organization & administration/psychology; Withholding Treatment/ethics/standards

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 practitioners in this area. In addition, the perspectives of bereaved parents must be uncovered as well. In this article, the empirical data in the literature on end-of-life care in the pediatric ICU are reviewed, common ethical controversies in this environment are discussed, and promising interventions for the future are presented.

2004

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