OBJECTIVE: To explore recipients' perspectives on the range and origins of their emotional experiences during their 'bad news' consultations., METHODS: Participants were four bereaved families of children who had changed from active treatment to…
Content: The use of recreational, expressive, and integrative methods of providing supportive care to patients and families coping with cancer is growing in cancer treatment settings. One such method is animal-assisted interventions (AAI). From the…
Context: Supporting patients' spiritual needs is central to palliative care. Adolescents and young adults (AYAs) may be developing their spiritual identities; it is unclear how to navigate conversations concerning their spiritual needs. Objectives:…
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…
PURPOSE Adolescents and young adults (AYAs; age 15-39 years) with advanced cancer are a population in whom quality of life is uniquely affected because of their stage of life. However, training focused on palliative care for AYAs is not routinely…
PURPOSE: We report on an in-depth interview and participant observation study that uses data from multiple sources to determine how the involvement of teenagers with leukaemia is understood and enacted in healthcare. In this article, we investigate…
Context Bereaved parents may have heightened risk for decisional regret; however, little is known about regret early in bereavement. Objectives We characterized decisional regrets endorsed by parents of children who died from cancer within the first…
INTRODUCTION: Adequate communication by medical personnel is especially important at certain points during the treatment of childhood cancer patients. AIM: To investigate the timing and manner of communication with parents concerning the introduction…
Purpose: Concurrent hospice care provides important end-of-life care for youth under 21 years. Those nearing 21 years must decide whether to shift to adult hospice or leave hospice for life-prolonging care. This decision may be challenging for young…
PURPOSE: Children who have a parent with incurable cancer are in a vulnerable situation and the Swedish law tries to protect them. This article aims to explore the interactions between nurses and children of patients with incurable cancer from the…
Background The Pediatric Quality of Life and Evaluation of Symptoms Technology Response to Pediatric Oncology Symptom Experience (PQ-Response) intervention aims to integrate specialized pediatric palliative care into the routine care of children,…
BACKGROUND: Few evidence-based psychosocial programs have been tested among adolescents and young adults (AYAs) with advanced cancer (AC), and early advance care planning (ACP) in this population is rare. The authors aimed to determine the…
Context: Most children with cancer die in hospital settings, without hospice, and many suffer from high-intensity medical interventions and pain at end of life (EOL). Objective(s): To examine the effects of COMPLETE: a communication plan early…
BACKGROUND: Bereavement support is a core tenet of palliative care that may prove difficult for clinicians as it is time-consuming, emotionally charged, and not emphasized in pediatrics training. This project is intended to describe the opinions,…
BACKGROUND: Pediatric palliative care (PPC) for oncology patients improves quality of life and the likelihood of goal-concordant care. However, barriers to involvement exist. OBJECTIVES: We aimed to increase days between PPC consult and death for…
OBJECTIVE: Meaning-making may assist individuals in adaptation to stressful life events, particularly bereavement. However, few studies have examined meaning-making among pediatric populations with advanced illness to understand how this process…
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…
Context Among adults with cancer, measures for high quality end-of-life care (EOLC) include avoidance of hospitalizations near end of life. For children with cancer, no measures exist to evaluate or improve EOLC, and adult quality measures may not…
OBJECTIVES: This systematic review aimed to determine the content, mode of delivery, assessment, and outcomes of educational interventions to equip health and social care professionals (HSCPs) when delivering end-of-life (EoL) supportive care for…
Historically, adolescent and young adult (AYA) patients with cancer, diagnosed for the first time at age 15 through 39 years, have often been identified as a "lost tribe" without a medical "home"; neither pediatric nor adult oncology services were…
PURPOSE: Adolescents and young adults (AYA) with cancer are a cohort requiring specialized healthcare models to address unique cognitive and physical challenges. Advance care planning (ACP) discussions likely warrant age-appropriate adaptation, yet,…
The extent of Advance Care Planning (ACP) among Adolescent and Young Adult (AYA) cancer patients is not well characterized. This retrospective case note audit scrutinized the records of all AYA patients (aged 16-25 years) known to a regional…
BACKGROUND: Research has highlighted the need for evidence-based interventions to improve paediatric advance care planning (pACP) in adolescents with cancer. Although adolescents express the desire and ability to share their values, beliefs and…
Purpose of reviewThis article reviews the current literature on psychosocial care of children with cancer with particular focus on evidence-based standards of care, including developments in systematic distress screening, utilization of…
This article highlights key findings from the "Comprehensive Cancer Care for Children and Their Families" March 2015 joint workshop by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) and the American Cancer Society. This initiative convened more than 100 family…
Background: Cancer remains the leading medical cause of death in children. Ensuring quality of life should be a priority, but it may be difficult to stop treatments, particularly in settings where palliative care is scarce. Little is known about how…
Background: Children with relapsed/refractory cancer have a myriad of palliative care needs. While pediatric oncology clinicians meet many of these needs, studies suggest that these children often have distressing symptoms and that families feel…
CONTEXT: Cancer is the leading cause of non-accidental death in childhood, with the death of a child representing a devastating loss for families. Peer support offers a valuable way to support parents' adjustment in bereavement. The By My Side book…
Adolescents and young adults 15 to 25 years of age with incurable cancer are a unique patient group. There is growing evidence of the emotionally taxing nature of this work, yet limited understanding of the health care professional experience across…
Children with cancer experience multiple symptoms at end of life (EOL) that impair their health-related quality of life. Using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines, this integrative literature review…
Background/Objectives: Palliative care for Pediatric cancer patients and their families includes the relief of symptom and improvement of quality of life at any and all stages of disease. There care are most effectively provided by an…
CONTEXT: Many children with advanced cancer are not referred to palliative care despite both professional recommendations to do so and bereaved parental preference for earlier support from sub-specialty palliative care. OBJECTIVES: To assess the…
This study evaluated the potential impact of an online spiritual care educational program on pediatric nurses' attitudes toward and knowledge of spiritual care and their competence to provide spiritual care to children with cancer at the end of life.…
Paediatric palliative care (PPC) endeavours to alleviate the suffering and improve the quality of life of children with serious illnesses and their families. In the past two decades since WHO defined PPC and called for its inclusion in paediatric…
MyPal is a European initiative focusing on the use of the electronic patient reported outcome (ePRO) measures to enhance patient engagement in palliative cancer care via digital self-reporting palliative care for patients with cancer. As a part of…
BACKGROUND: Most pediatric palliative care (PPC) services are inpatient consultation services and do not reach patients and families in the outpatient and home settings, where a vast majority of oncology care occurs. We explored whether an embedded…
ImportanceThe associations of spiritual and religious factors with patient-reported outcomes among adolescents with cancer are unknown.ObjectiveTo model the association of spiritual and religious constructs with patient-reported outcomes of anxiety,…
