The relationship between parents and clinician is critical to the care and treatment of children with life-limiting conditions (LLCs) and life-threatening illnesses (LTIs). This relationship is built and maintained largely in consultations. In this…
BACKGROUND: All hospital trusts in Norway have clinical ethics committees (CEC). Some of them invite next of kin/patients to be present during the discussion of their case. This study looks closer at how parents of seriously ill children have…
OBJECTIVES: To identify and explore the educational needs of children's hospice doctors in England. DESIGN: A descriptive quantitative and qualitative survey. SETTING: Children's hospices in England. PARTICIPANTS: All children's hospice…
OBJECTIVE: Discussing the potential deterioration of a child who has a life-limiting condition has recognised benefits for future care, but can be challenging in a clinical context where uncertain illness trajectories are common. Existing research is…
Draft guidelines address regional variations, but there are worries over terminology, the needs of family members and implementation. The death of a child is a comparatively rare event in the UK. Even so, more than 3,000 infant and 2,000 children and…
There are more migrants, refugees, and immigrants adrift in the world today than at any time in the recent past. Doctors and hospitals must care for people from many different cultures, countries, and religious backgrounds. We sometimes find our…
CONTEXT: Discussing end-of-life issues with patients is an essential role for chaplains. Few tools are available to help chaplains-in-training develop end-of-life communication skills. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to determine whether playing an…
Understanding research priorities in children's palliative care is important for nurses, following the phasing out of the Liverpool Care Pathway, which has led to a change in palliative and end of life care ( Department of Health (DH) 2014 ).…
Critical care providers are responsible for many aspects of patient care, primarily focusing on preserving life. However, nearly 40% of patients who are admitted to an adult critical care unit will not survive. Initiating a conversation about…
The death of a child alters the life and health of others immediately and for the rest of their lives. How a child dies influences parents' abilities to continue their role functions as well as siblings' abilities to make and maintain friendships,…
Palliative care is specialized care for people with life-limiting illness; it focuses on symptom management and quality of life and ensures that a patient's care is concordant with her goals and values. Unlike end-of-life care, palliative care can be…
It is known that if one partner wants to talk after the loss of a child, while the other does not, the less satisfied they are with the relationship. The aim of this study was to increase our understanding of parental relationships following the loss…
This paper describes a practice innovation: the addition of formal weekly discussions of patients with prolonged PICU stay to reduce healthcare providers' moral distress and decrease length of stay for patients with life-threatening illnesses. We…
OBJECTIVES: We hypothesize that a formal simulation curriculum prepares neonatology fellows for difficult conversations better than traditional didactics. METHODS: Single-center neonatology fellowship graduates from 1999 to 2013 were sent a…
Pediatric residents report they are not sufficiently trained to communicate with families at a child's death. We performed a study to prove feasibility and assess whether simulation improves their communication and experience. Residents were assigned…
BACKGROUND: Pediatric fellows receive little palliative care (PC) education and have few opportunities to practice communication skills. OBJECTIVE: In this pilot study, we assessed (1) the relative effectiveness of simulation-based versus didactic…
PURPOSE OF REVIEW: An up-to-date summary of the literature on children's and adolescents' understanding of their own terminal illness and death. RECENT FINDINGS: Clinicians still find it difficult to speak with pediatric patients about death even…
BACKGROUND: The information needs of parents facing end-of-life decisions for their child are complex due to the wide-ranging dimensions within which such significant events unfold. While parents acknowledge that healthcare professionals are their…
