This is the intertwined story of three unique individuals—each of us parents, researchers, givers and takers—who met and changed each other’s lives, whilst simultaneously struggling to comprehend and make meaning out of our own personal losses. After…
We read with interest the article titled “A “Good Death” for Children with Cardiac Disease” by Moynihan et al. [1] The authors found that parents were less likely to perceive a “good death” when there was a lack of advanced care planning, poor pain…
Portugal has been identified as the European country with the most rapid evolution of Pediatric Palliative Care provision, where approximately 7800 children have life-limiting conditions. This is a highly complex experience not only for the children…
BACKGROUND: South Asians are one of the fastest growing populations in the US. Family based decision making is common among this population. Little is known about their knowledge and attitudes towards hospice use. OBJECTIVE(S): This study explored US…
Home-based hospice and/or palliative care (HBHPC) is an important and increasingly utilized aspect of care for children with serious conditions-those with high mortality risk, which either impacts their quality of life or carries a significant…
BACKGROUND: Residents often feel unprepared to care for dying patients and may benefit from more training. Little is known about factors in the clinical setting that promote resident learning about end of life (EOL) care. OBJECTIVE(S): This…
Only a few acute hospital inpatient units dedicated to pediatric palliative care (PPC) patients exist today. Clinical data on the patients and care provided at specialized acute PPC inpatient units (PPCUs) are scarce. This study aims at describing…
In Europe, Portugal has been identified as the country with the most rapid evolution of paediatric palliative care provision, which is a highly complex experience for families. The present descriptive-exploratory study seeks to contribute to the…
Physicians who care for children with life-threatening conditions are uniquely positioned to support families through the dying phase when treatment efforts have failed. Taking on this role for families requires a great deal of time and strategic…
BACKGROUND: Legacy building interventions are used in pediatric healthcare settings to help families cope with difficult healthcare experiences and typically reserved for intentional use at or near the end of a child's life. However, little is known…
Background: Families who must decide about pediatric home ventilation rely on the clinicians who counsel them for guidance. Most studies about pediatric home ventilation decisions focus on families who opt for this intervention, leaving much unknown…
Purpose: Pregnancy and birth is often a joyous period for a dyad. In the instance of fetal death, however, dyads are met with a devastating loss of their child, the hope for the future, and the new reality of becoming a bereaved parent. The purpose…
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: 919,000 Rohingya refugees live in overcrowded camps in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh after fleeing violence in Myanmar. The Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Goyalmara Hospital offers the highest level of pediatric and neonatal care serving the…
INTRODUCTION: The Pediatric Palliative Screening Scale (PaPaS Scale) was designed to help professionals to identify life-limiting or life-threatening children/young people with complex chronic conditions who would benefit from pediatric palliative…
AIM: Parents are increasingly confronted with loss during their child's end of life. Healthcare professionals struggle with parental responses to loss. This study aimed to understand parental coping with grief during their child's end of life.…
Background: Chronic non-cancer pain in childhood is widespread, affecting 20% to 35% of children and young people worldwide. For a sizeable number of children, chronic non-cancer pain has considerable negative impacts on their lives and quality of…
Objectives To see if a network Palliative Care Study day increases knowledge of participants. Method This was the first paediatric palliative care network study day run in the region. 20 doctors (both consultants and those in training) participated.…
Background: Paediatric Palliative Care (PPC) has undergone rapid growth in Portugal, where there are over 7800 children with life-limiting conditions. This is a complex experience for families due to the ongoing threat and vulnerability caused by the…
Introduction: Being responsive to end-users is essential to good care. Limited in-depth exploration of parental perspectives on care received by children over the course of serious illness has hindered the development of process measures to evaluate…
Abstract Purpose: To understand the experience of nurses caring for infants and children with life limiting and life-threatening conditions. Design and methods: A qualitative phenomenological study was conducted, collecting data through deep…
To examine the parent's experiences of bonding in the care of newborns who were seriously ill during the neonatal period and did not survive. Design: Data were collected through 7 interviews with 10 parents whose infants were cared for and died in a…
Outcomes: 1. Describe the development of essential competencies for psychologists in pediatric palliative care (PPC) 2. Discuss psychologists' roles in PPC, research, and education and the value of inclusion as members of the multidisciplinary PPC…
Pediatric shared decision-making (SDM) is a fundamental part of family-centered care. Pediatric palliative care (PPC) is one of the more difficult fields for healthcare providers when choosing to utilize SDM. However, to our knowledge, there are…
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…
This study aims to understand the experiences of professionals involved in caring for families of children with life-limiting illnesses to ascertain unmet needs, access issues and expectations of services.A phenomenological approach comprising…
Background: This article examines the legal status and level of accessibility to perinatal palliative care (PPC) in Poland, with a focus on the number of services provided and the number of parents receiving PPC services. Material(s) and Method(s):…
With advances in biomedical sciences, a growing number of conditions affecting children have evolved from being considered life-limiting to almost chronic diseases. However, improvements in survival rates often come at a cost of increased medical…
OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to evaluate the impact of advance care planning (ACP) on parent-reported end-of-life (EOL) outcomes in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). STUDY DESIGN: Single-center, cross-sectional mixed-methods survey study of…
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…
Background: Providing long-term care for a family member can be a source of severe stress for the untrained caregiver, and is known to cause depression, poor overall health, and lower quality of life for the caregiver. This burden may lead to poorer…
Medical advances have increased the number of children living with life-threatening/life-limiting illnesses worldwide, including in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. Pediatric palliative care (PPC) is a relatively young subspecialty that…
Purpose: Pediatric palliative care is a rapidly developing multidisciplinary approach that supports children with life-limiting conditions and their families. However, there is limited evidence on how to effectively support bereaved parents and…
Objectives To identify gaps in SPPC provision at a patient and service level at the tertiary centre, local children's hospice and the region, compared to national frameworks and standards. Specialist paediatric palliative care (SPPC) aims to improve…
Objective To describe the development and implementation of a 1-year 'Hybrid' Pediatric Palliative Care (PPC) Fellowship, which includes both clinical and online learning to train paediatricians as specialists and leaders in paediatric palliative…
Although medicolegal challenges to the use of neurologic criteria to declare death in the USA have been well-described, the management of court cases in the United Kingdom about objections to the use of neurologic criteria to declare death has not…
Instrumental variable analysis (IVA) has been widely used in many fields, including health care, to determine the comparative effectiveness of a treatment, intervention, or policy. However, its application in pediatric end-of-life care research has…
Abstract This study aims to evaluate the appropriateness of end-of-life care for children with genetic and congenital conditions. This is a decedent cohort study. We used 6 linked, Belgian, routinely collected, population-level databases containing…
