INTRODUCTION: Many children are born with life-limiting illnesses. Medical decision-making for these children by caregivers is complex and causes significant psychosocial distress, which can be partially alleviated by effective communication with…
AIM: Parents' role as end-of-life decision-makers for their child has become largely accepted Western health-care practice. How parents subsequently view and live with the end-of-life decision (ELD) they made has not been extensively examined. To…
To enhance understanding of parental relationships following the loss of a child, a questionnaire was sent to members of Norwegian bereavement support organizations. The sample consisted of 175 couples. Using the Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS), we…
BACKGROUND: Stillbirth and neonatal death are one of the most stressful life events, with negative outcomes for parents. Society does not recognize this type of loss, and parental grieving is particularly complicated and intense. PURPOSE: The aim of…
Background: In pediatric hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT), the end-of-life (EOL) phase and the loss of the child is often characterized by a sudden deterioration of the child following a period of intensive curative treatment. This…
AIM: Understanding of coping strategies that parents use before the death of their child is crucial, and will enable us to best provide support. The current study aimed to explore parents' coping strategies, and map these onto an existing theoretical…
Background: To design high-quality home-based hospice and palliative care (HBHPC) systems, it is imperative to understand the perspectives of parents whose children enroll in HBHPC programs. Objective(s): The goal of this project was to identify and…
CONTEXT: Children with life-shortening serious illnesses and medically complex care needs are often cared for by their families at home. Little, however, is known about what aspects of pediatric palliative and hospice care in the home setting…
INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVE: The family is a reliable and permanent source of support for every human being. It is the key link in the welfare system. The aim of the study is to assess parents' attitudes towards the occurrence of a difficult situation…
Transitional care for young people with long-term conditions emphasizes the importance of supporting parents, particularly in relation to promoting adolescent healthcare autonomy. Yet, little practical guidance is provided, and transitional care…
CONTEXT: Caring for a child who will die from a life-limiting illness is one of the most difficult experiences a parent may face. Pediatric palliative care (PPC) has grown as a specialty service to address the unique needs of children and families…
OBJECTIVES: Shared decision-making (SDM) is the pinnacle of patient-centered care and has been shown to improve health outcomes, especially for children with chronic medical conditions. However, parents perceive suboptimal involvement during…
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To describe the health challenge for mothers whose infants have died and approaches and resources they used to manage the loss. BACKGROUND: The death of an infant is a devastating experience for families. Bereaved mothers have…
CONTEXT: Improving end-of-life care for children with complex chronic conditions (CCCs) requires parental perspectives. The vulnerability of bereaved parents has historically been a research barrier and studies describing their research participation…
BACKGROUND: Moral distress is an important and well-studied phenomenon among nurses and other healthcare providers, yet the conceptualization of parental moral distress remains unclear. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this dimensional analysis was to…
CONTEXT: Childhood cancer care is delivered by interprofessional healthcare teams however little is known about how parents perceive overall team-delivered care (TDC). OBJECTIVES: We sought to describe parent perceptions of TDC and associated…
BACKGROUND: Parents of children with life-limiting illnesses experience considerable burden and distress, yet few interventions have targeted their well-being. OBJECTIVES: Evaluate the use and feasibility of the Paediatric Carer Support Needs…
BACKGROUND: Prior research has demonstrated that the presence of regret and unfinished business is associated with poorer adjustment in bereavement. Though there is a growing literature on these constructs among caregivers of adult patients, the…
INTRODUCTION: Regret about loss is one of the most intense types of regret experienced in life. Little is known about the bereavement regret of parents whose child has died of cancer. Although knowledge about parents' experiences after their child's…
The purpose of this study was to investigate the needs of bereaved parents in Greece (N = 56) regarding the provision of hospital based bereavement services after the death of their child to cancer. The participants did not receive formal or informal…
Background: End-of-life (EOL) quality markers in adult oncology include home death and intensive care unit avoidance. Corresponding markers are lacking in pediatric oncology. This study was aimed at describing bereaved parents' perspectives of…
Historically, men’s experiences of grief following pregnancy loss and neonatal death have been under-explored in comparison to women. However, investigating men’s perspectives is important, given potential gendered differences concerning grief…
BACKGROUND: Palliative care principles are known to support the experiences of children and their families throughout the illness trajectory. However, there is little knowledge of the parental perceptions of care delivered and gaps experienced by…
Background: Parents of seriously ill children are at risk of psychosocial morbidity, which may be mitigated by competent family-centered communication and role-affirming conversations. Parent caregivers describe a guiding desire to do a good job in…
Purpose Research shows that knowledge about mental health status, both protective and risk factors, is limited in cancer-bereaved parents. The study aimed to investigate (1) the extent of psychological distress in bereaved parents 2–8 years after the…
Background, aim or objectives Despite a growing corpus of qualitative research exploring parental experiences of caring for a child with a life-limiting condition (LLC), studies focusing on fathers' needs are sparse. Their voice is often diluted…
BACKGROUND: End-of-life care for children with life-shortening conditions is provided in a range of settings including hospital, hospice and home. What home-based, end-of-life care should entail or what best practice might look like is not widely…
Objectives This study aimed to characterize the use and impact of assessments of understanding in parent-clinician communication for critically ill infants. Methods We enrolled parents and clinicians participating in family conferences for infants…
Background Having a child admitted to the paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) is often an emotional and stressful experience for parents. Aim The aim of the study was to explore parents’ experiences during and after their child’s hospitalization in…
A good death is an important concept in pediatric palliative care. To improve the quality of pediatric palliative care, it is imperative to identify which domain is most important for a good death among children with cancer and their parents. This…
BACKGROUND: Stillbirth, the death of a baby before birth, is associated with significant psychological and social consequences that can be mitigated by respectful and supportive bereavement care. The absence of high-level evidence to support the…
Objective: To describe levels of perceived shared decision making (SDM), decisional conflict (DC), and decision regret (DR) in prenatal counseling by pregnant women, partners, neonatologists, and obstetricians regarding decision-making around…
Context : Few studies have explored the impact of the Coronavirus Pandemic (COVID-19) on the care of seriously ill children which may be especially affected due to the child's vulnerability, complexity of care, and high reliance on hospital-based…
CONTEXT: The death of a child from cancer is a devastating event, placing bereaved parents at risk for both physical and psychosocial morbidities. Despite growing awareness of these outcomes and increased hospital-based support, bereaved parents…
BACKGROUND: Mucopolysaccharidoses (MPS) are rare inherited metabolic disorders that come under category three of life-limiting conditions. Children born with this condition show no symptoms at birth, but its effects show as a progressive disease in…
BACKGROUND: Memory making is the process of creating mementos of a child with a life limiting condition, who may be at or near end of life, providing a tangible and visual connection to the child who has died. AIM: This study explored the lived…
Caring for a child with a serious or life-limiting illness presents many challenges for families and health care providers. Through that experience (and, many times, as it ends), parents are compelled to find and make meaning from their ultimate loss…
The emergence of efficacious human gene therapy for life-limiting genetic diseases such as spinal muscular atrophy type 11 has raised hopes among families of children with previously incurable genetic disorders. However, a number of concerns have…
Background: To allay uneasiness among clinicians and institutional review board members about pediatric palliative care research and to yield new knowledge relevant to study methods, documenting burdens and benefits of this research on children and…
Background: Many children with complex chronic conditions (CCCs) are supported by medical technologies. Objective: The aim of this study was to understand bereaved parent perspectives on technology assistance among this unique population. Design:…
