Use of Mobile Cold Sheets in Paediatric Hospice Care
cold stress; Hospice Care; Australia; Child; child parent relation; Cold Temperature; conference abstract; cooling; emergency care; funeral home; Hospice Care; Hospice; Human; learning; Memory; nut; posthumous care; practice guideline; privacy; twins; unlicensed drug use
After death care is an essential service offered by paediatric hospices in the time between the death of a child and their funeral or care being transferred to a funeral home. This service allows families time together, privacy and memory making opportunities (Oldham, 2021. ehospice. [Int. Child. ed.], Sept.29) when this may have been limited in the acute care setting or families may have been focused on acute care and interventional management. Resources that are required include family support and clinical teams with experience in after death management, and resources to promote cooling. The length of admission provided to families varies across paediatric hospices and depends on a balance of family preferences, policies of the facility based on experience and condition of the body. As such, any resources that can promote optimal cooling facilitate more time and a better experience for families. Hummingbird House Hospice (Brisbane, Australia) and Acorns (West Midlands, UK) are experienced in after death care. Hummingbird House uses innovative mobile cold sheets to best support after death care, now being adopted as practice in Acorns Hospices with collaboration between services. Mobile cooling sheets are inexpensive, simple to use and do not require coolant to be pumped through like 'cuddle cots' or other cooling mat devices. Advantages include decreased reliance on coolant-based technology (more vulnerable to malfunction), ability to facilitate twins (or other multiple births) being laid together, and increased portability to experience 'normal' parenting such as having time outside in a pram. A case study highlights advantages from a family perspective. The organisational barriers to implementing this new practice have included: justifying additional resources to those already available; need for educational resources and organisational guidelines; lack of local experience; concern about unlicensed use of products and correct storage. We hope to share our experiences and learnings with this new technology to increase the options in care available to bereaved families across the UK.
Mott C; Oldham K
BMJ Supportive and Palliative Care
2022
Article information provided for research and reference use only. PedPalASCNET does not hold any rights over the resource listed here. All rights are retained by the journal listed under publisher and/or the creator(s).
<a href="http://doi.org/10.1136/spcare-2022-HUNC.207" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">10.1136/spcare-2022-HUNC.207</a>
Perinatal palliative care after a stillbirth - Midwives experiences of using Cubitus baby
midwife; palliative therapy; Stillbirth; Cold; Cold Temperature; content analysis; cooling; Female; Human; human dignity; infant; major clinical study; Male; Midwifery; Palliative Care; Parents; Questionnaire; Refrigeration; Sweden
In Sweden, around 450 babies are stillborn every year. Usually, the parents stay at the hospital a couple of days after the birth and they can have the baby in their room. Due to the importance to keep a dead body cold it has, until recently, been a routine to separate the baby from the parents and place the baby in a refrigerator during the night. With the goal to improve the dignity for the baby and the family a tool was developed. Cubitus baby, a special cot with cooling blocks, was implemented at all 48 delivery wards in Sweden during 2013-2014. The aim of the study was to investigate the midwives experiences of using Cubitus baby. In total 155 midwives answered a questionnaire. One open question was analyzed with content analyses. Five categories were formed concerning the midwives experiences; a gracious feeling, a sense of relief in their work, caring with coldness, time to say goodbye and a good feeling for the parents. Cubitus Baby is an essential tool for the midwife when they provide perinatal palliative care. The midwife can give time to say farewell without feeling stressed that they must separate the baby from the parents.
Radestad I; Listermar KH
Bmc Pregnancy And Childbirth
2017
Article information provided for research and reference use only. PedPalASCNET does not hold any rights over the resource listed here. All rights are retained by the journal listed under publisher and/or the creator(s).
<a href="http://doi.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer"></a>