In pediatric oncology nursing, and across practice disciplines in general, clinical research serves as the cornerstone for improving patient care. Historically, advances made in the care and cure of childhood cancer have stemmed directly from…
Almost every woman and some men will encounter hot flushes during their lifetime. Despite the prevalence of the symptoms, the pathophysiology of hot flushes remains unknown. A decline in hormone concentrations might lead to alterations in brain…
BACKGROUND: Codeine analgesia is wholly or mostly due to its metabolism to morphine by the cytochrome P450 enzyme CYP2D6, which shows significant genetic variation in activity. The aims of this study were to investigate genotype, phenotype and…
Pain can be an adaptive sensation, an early warning to protect the body from tissue injury. By the introduction of hypersensitivity to normally innocuous stimuli, pain may also aid in repair after tissue damage. Pain can also be maladaptive,…
This article presents the findings of a study that explored documentation surrounding the end-of-life care of children with cancer. An in-depth history audit of 18 children with cancer, who died from disease progression at a single tertiary…
A reliable and valid measure of the quality of the dying experience would help clinicians and researchers improve care for dying patients. To describe the validity of an instrument assessing the quality of dying and death using the perspective of…
OBJECTIVE: This paper identifies key features associated with high-quality educational materials for end-of-life curriculum. METHODS: The End of Life Physician Education Resource Center (EPERC), located on the Internet at provides a clearinghouse for…
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,…
OBJECTIVES: Patients' views of physician skill in providing end-of-life care may vary across different diseases, and understanding these differences will help physicians improve the quality of care they provide for patients at the end of life. The…
A previous study found that parents of communicatively impaired children with severe cognitive impairments identified six core cues as indicating definite or severe pain in their child (J. Pediatr. Psychol. 27 (2002) 209). The frequency of each cue…
Hospice and palliative care principles mandate clinicIans to provide "total" care to patients and their families. Such care incorporates not only physical, emotional, and psychosocial care, but spiritual care as well. Even though considerable…
This paper reviews relevant international and New Zealand literature, policy documents and reports on respite provision for children who are dying and their families. The literature describes why respite care for children is necessary, and evaluates…
BACKGROUND: Morphine-6-glucuronide (M-6-G) and morphine-3-glucuronide (M-3-G) are the two most important metabolites of morphine. Both are pharmacologically active, however, with different effects. M-6-G has been demonstrated capable of inducing…
A Model to Guide Hospice Palliative Care: Based on National Principles and Norms of Practice (the Norms) was first released in 2002. Over more than ten years, the field has enthusiastically embraced the norms, using them to develop programs that…
This paper’s purpose is to describe standards for the competent practice of clinical social work. Clinical social workers provide more mental-emotional healthcare than any other professional group in the United States. The American Board of…
Fieldnotes are a vital part of ethnographic research, yet little attention has been paid to the practical details of note-taking. Exactly how does an ethnographer decide what to write about? This article uses fieldnotes from various sources to show…
Although antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) are commonly used to control and prevent seizures, their long-term use carries a considerable risk of morbidity. The decision to start AEDs is made once the risks of further seizures outweigh the risks of…
There has been a dramatic change in the therapeutic approach to patients with Paget's disease of bone over the last 40 years. In the 1960s, only symptomatic therapy could be given, with control of pain the main objective. Analgesics and nonsteroidal…
OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to investigate the long-term safety and efficacy of risperidone in disruptive behavior disorders in children with subaverage IQs. Disruptive behavior disorders were defined as oppositional defiant disorder,…
New regulatory initiatives have been designed to ensure that new drugs and biologicals include adequate pediatric labeling for the claimed indications at the time of, or soon after, approval. However, because such labeling may not immediately be…
CONTEXT: End-of-life care is an important yet underdeveloped component of pediatric hospital services. OBJECTIVES: We sought 1) to describe the demographics of children who die in children's hospitals, 2) to describe the prevalence of complex chronic…
OBJECTIVE: Little is known about factors that influence whether children with chronic conditions die at home. We sought to test whether deaths attributable to underlying complex chronic conditions (CCCs) were increasingly occurring at home and to…
OBJECTIVE: Data regarding pediatric in-hospital cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) have been limited because of retrospective study designs, small sample sizes, and inconsistent definitions of cardiac arrest and CPR. The purpose of this study was to…
This study focused on understanding spiritual issues addressed in parental accounts of losing a child and the therapeutic implications for helping professionals. Qualitative, in-depth interviews were conducted with nineteen parents concerning their…
The objective of this study was to determine whether having a hospice unit within the hospital increases the proportion of terminally ill patients who use hospice services (including home, nursing home, or inpatient hospice) post-admission. Using…
The provision of bereavement support for parents who have lost a child is based on the assumption that it will lead to better subsequent adjustment. To determine the validity of this assumption, a systematic review of studies was undertaken, looking…
A significant proportion of children requiring palliative care have neurodegenerative life-threatening illnesses (NLTIs). While most of their care is provided at home by their families over many years, there is a paucity of research examining…
