BACKGROUND: Bereavement after the death of a child is devastating and associated with worse physical and psychosocial well-being in parents. Evidence suggests that parents desire and benefit from support provided by other bereaved parents. To foster…
Outcomes 1. Review the limited literature on barriers to provision of pediatric hospice care to children in the community and define the challenge of better equipping community-based hospice nurses to care for pediatric patients 2. Describe outcomes…
Families of children receiving palliative care depict lack of respite services as a top unmet need. Although the benefits of access to respite services are notable, little is known on a state-by-state basis about respite provision or funding. The…
BACKGROUND: Early identification of patients in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) at risk of nutritional status (NS) deterioration and poor outcomes is desirable. We aimed to identify factors associated with NS deterioration and prolonged PICU…
Background: Children with life-limiting conditions receive specialist paediatric care in childhood, but the transition to adult care during adolescence. There are concerns about transition, including a lack of continuity in care and that it may lead…
Although frequently overshadowed by adult mortality rates and bereavement care needs, the death of a child can significantly jeopardize the physical, psychosocial, and emotional health of surviving parents, caregivers, and family members.…
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: There is a gap in family knowledge of their adolescents' end-of-life (EOL) treatment preferences. We tested the efficacy of Family Centered Advance Care Planning for Teens with Cancer (FACE-TC) pediatric advance care…
Children's agency in their own lives is increasingly recognised as important, including within paediatric health care. The issue of acknowledging child agency is complex in the context of paediatric palliative care, where children have serious and…
BACKGROUND: Mortality and end-of-life decision-making can occur in newborns, especially within the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. For parents, participating in end-of-life decision-making is taxing. Knowledge is lacking on what support is helpful to…
Context Many pediatric hospitals offer legacy interventions for families to promote coping and support grief prior to and following the death of a child. Despite this practice, parent perceptions of the value of legacy activities are not well…
BACKGROUND: Children's hospices provide a range of services for babies, children and young people who have a life-limiting or life-threatening condition, including care after death in specialist 'cool bedrooms'. Care after death is a challenging but…
Objective The goal of this study was to compare rural and urban pediatric hospice patients in Appalachia. Methods Using a retrospective, nonexperimental design, we sought to compare characteristics of Appalachian rural and urban children younger than…
Context: Children and young people with life-limiting or life-threatening conditions and their families are potentially vulnerable during COVID-19 lockdowns due to pre-existing high clinical support needs and social participation limitations.…
Parents and clinicians caring for infants with neurologic disease often make high-stakes decisions about infant care. To characterize how these decisions occur, we enrolled infants with neurologic conditions, their parents, and their clinicians in a…
While social workers are a well-established, part of the pediatric palliative care team, this manuscript presents the first published definition of the core competencies of a pediatric palliative care social worker. National experts in the field,…
Background: One major challenge to the conduct of rigorous neonatal palliative care research is the lack of robust universally agreed upon definitions of key concepts central to pediatric and neonatal palliative care. Objective: We sought to define…
Adolescents living with chronic conditions (ALWCCs) are at a higher risk of suicide (odds ratio: 4.3) than their peers. No consensus exists in the scientific community on a definition or conceptual elements of emotional well-being in this vulnerable…
Purpose: This study aimed to determine the feasibility and acceptability of using videography to alleviate the stress of anticipatory mourning in pediatric palliative care patients. A secondary aim was to expand palliative/end of life care research…
We report the development and assessment of a novel coding framework in the context of research into neonatal end-of-life decision making conversations. Data comprised 27 formal conversations between doctors and parents of critically ill babies,…
Background and Objectives: Working in pediatric and neonatal intensive care units (ICUs) can be challenging and differs from work in adult ICUs. This study investigated for the first time the perceptions, experiences and challenges that healthcare…
Poor access to care is a top patient-oriented research priority for youth with chronic pain in Canada, and the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated these concerns. Our patient-oriented project team engaged with marginalized and racialized youth with…
Background: Pediatric nurses are particularly vulnerable to moral distress and turnover due to frequent experiences with patient death combined with limited pediatric palliative resources and related support. Objective(s): This study examined…
OBJECTIVES: Care for children with severe neurologic impairment (SNI) often involves complex medical decision-making where therapeutic alliance between clinicians and families is essential. Yet, existing data suggest that communication and alliance…
In Poland, guidelines for the management of ineffective treatment of children in neonatal and paediatric departments developed by the Polish Neonatal Society and the Polish Paediatric Society, have been published. The specific problems of futile…
Background: There is limited data on home-based pediatric palliative care (PPC) demographics and utilization outcomes. Objective(s): Describe who receives home-based PPC and compare emergency department visits, hospital admissions, and hospital days…
BACKGROUND: Children with life-limiting illnesses are living longer. They have complex care needs and require specialised knowledge and skills, yet paediatric palliative care is still at its infancy in most settings worldwide. AIMS: To describe the…
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Genetic testing is expanding among ill neonates, yet the influence of genetic results on medical decision-making is not clear. With this study, we sought to determine how different types of genetic information with…
Despite advances in medicine, some children will always die; a decline in pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) mortality to zero will never be achieved. The mortality decline is correspondingly asymptotic, yet we remain preoccupied with mortality…
OBJECTIVE: Reducing emergency department (ED) use in children with complex chronic conditions (CCC) is a national health system priority. Emergency department visits with minimal clinical intervention may be the most avoidable. We assessed…
BACKGROUND: The concept of pediatric palliative care (PPC) is applied differently within the healthcare system and among healthcare professionals (HCPs). To our knowledge, no studies have investigated how multidisciplinary HCPs understand the concept…
OBJECTIVES: We sought to characterize the nature and prevalence of medication order errors (MOEs) occurring at hospital admission for children with medical complexity (CMC), as well as identify the demographic and clinical risk factors for CMC…
BACKGROUND: Pediatric end of life (EOL) care involves complex coordination of providers from multiple disciplines. Many of these providers' experiences have not been completely described. AIM: This study aims to explicate the alignment and divergence…
Aim: Multidrug-resistant organisms (MDRO) deserve special attention in health-care facilities for children with life-limiting conditions because these children have an increased risk for colonisation. To avoid nosocomial transmissions to other…
Introduction Multimorbidity, the co-occurrence of a chronic physical condition and mental disorder, affects a substantial number of children and youth and can lead to compromised quality of life, hardship for families, and an increased burden on the…
BACKGROUND: End-of-Life care and experiencing death of infants, children, and teenagers remain one of the most difficult and traumatic events for nurses and nursing students, potentially leading to personal and professional distress. Although efforts…
BACKGROUND: End-of-life decision-making for terminally ill neonates raises important legal and ethical issues. In Greece, no recent data on nurses' attitudes and involvement in end-of-life decisions are available. RESEARCH QUESTION/AIM: To…
BACKGROUND: Parents' perceptions of critical care during the final days of their child's life shape their grief for decades. Little is known about nursing care needs of children actively dying in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU). OBJECTIVES:…
Historically, the goal of care in a pediatric or neonatal intensive care unit was to do everything medically possible to cure illness or prolong life. When curative therapies were no longer appropriate, the approach was to turn to end-of-life care.…
OBJECTIVES: Pediatric out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Pediatric palliative care (PPC) services could provide an integral component of the comprehensive care necessary for these patients…
BACKGROUND: Palliative sedation is consciously reducing the patient's consciousness to alleviate the refractory symptoms. However, studies on palliative sedation for children are scarce. We aimed to survey the symptom control and risks for children…
