OBJECTIVE: Donation after cardiac death has been endorsed by professional organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics as a means of increasing the supply of transplantable organs. However, ethical concerns have been raised about…
Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality among hospitalized patients, including children. In recent years, it has become clear that hospitalization and critical illness bestow an increased VTE risk in pediatrics and…
BACKGROUND: Institutional review boards (IRBs) are given discretion to interpret and apply the federal regulations governing the protection of human subjects in research. OBJECTIVE: To determine the extent of the variability among different IRBs on…
Learning Objectives: Assessing competence in pediatric critical care medicine (PCCM) training is challenging, and Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) were recently introduced to enhance the assessment process. There are 7 EPAs that define the…
OBJECTIVE: To describe the consequences of the prolonged administration of sedative and analgesic agents to the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) patient. The problems to be investigated include tolerance, physical dependency, and withdrawal. DATA…
As life expectancy grows, the death of an adult child becomes a highly prevalent problem for older adults. The present study is based on nine interviews and explores the experience of parents (≥70 years) outliving an adult child. The bereaved parents…
Learning Objectives: Parents have described high-quality end of life care as care that involves giving news with sensitivity, giving clear information on what to expect, and generally preparing families for the circumstances surrounding their child’s…
Learning Objectives: Parents have described high-quality end of life care as care that involves giving news with sensitivity, giving clear information on what to expect, and generally preparing families for the circumstances surrounding their child's…
OBJECTIVES: The high cost of critical care has engendered research into identifying influential factors. However, existing studies have not considered patient vital status at ICU discharge. This study sought to determine the effect of mortality upon…
OBJECTIVES: Children with severe chronic illness are a prevalent, impactful, vulnerable group in PICUs, whose needs are insufficiently met by transitory care models and a narrow focus on acute care needs. Thus, we sought to provide a concise…
OBJECTIVE: Anxiety and depression may have a major impact on a person's ability to make decisions. Characterization of symptoms that reflect anxiety and depression in family members visiting intensive care patients should be of major relevance to the…
OBJECTIVES:
Surrogate decision makers involved in decisions to limit life support for an incapacitated patient in the ICU have high rates of adverse emotional health outcomes distinct from normal processes of grief and bereavement. Narrative…
Learning Objectives: Social workers (SWs) and chaplains (Cs) support families of PICU cancer patients. Few data describe the activities and impact of SWs and Cs (SWs/Cs) in the PICU. This study examined the activities of SWs/Cs caring for PICU cancer…
OBJECTIVES:
To test the ability of palliative care screening criteria to improve access to palliative care services in the PICU and examine the association between palliative care team involvement and ICU and hospital length of…
OBJECTIVES: To determine whether children who experience longer intensive care unit (ICU) stays after open heart surgery may be identified at admission by clinical criteria. To identify factors associated with longer ICU stays that are potential…
OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to establish relationships between illness severity, length of stay, and functional outcomes in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) by using multi-institutional data. We hypothesized that a positive…
Learning Objectives: Parents that experience the death of a child are at high risk for complicated grief, which may be related to unsuccessful attempts to find meaning in their loss. Responses to stress include involuntary reactions that reflect…
Learning Objectives: Parents that experience the death of a child are at high risk for complicated grief, which may be related to unsuccessful attempts to find meaning in their loss. Responses to stress include involuntary reactions that reflect…
BACKGROUND: These recommendations have been developed to improve the care of intensive care unit (ICU) patients during the dying process. The recommendations build on those published in 2003 and highlight recent developments in the field from a U.S.…
OBJECTIVE: To describe the reasons for eventual dissatisfaction among the families of patients who died in the intensive care unit (ICU), regarding both the assistance offered during the patient's stay in the hospital and the information received…
OBJECTIVE: To determine the pharmacokinetics of fentanyl when used as a long-term continuous infusion for sedation/analgesia in mechanically ventilated critically ill infants and children. DESIGN: Prospective, case series. SETTING: A university…
Abstract
OBJECTIVES:
To develop and validate an algorithm to guide selection of patients for pediatric critical care admission during a severe pandemic when Crisis Standards of Care are implemented.
DESIGN:
Retrospective observational study using…
The Pediatric Risk of Mortality (PRISM) score was developed from the Physiologic Stability Index (PSI) to reduce the number of physiologic variables required for pediatric ICU (PICU) mortality risk assessment and to obtain an objective weighting of…
OBJECTIVE: To describe the incidence, survival, and neurologic outcome of in-intensive-care-unit (ICU) cardiac arrest and to identify factors predictive of survival to hospital discharge. METHODS: We performed a retrospective cohort study. Eligible…
Learning Objectives: The importance of Palliative and End of Life Care (PC, EOL) for children in the PICU with life-limiting, chronic conditions is increasingly recognized (1). Robust PC improves outcomes by symptom score, cost, and length of life…
OBJECTIVE:
Health professionals in PICUs support both child and parents when a child's death is imminent. Parents long to stay connected to their dying child but the high-tech environment and treatment implications make it difficult to stay…
OBJECTIVE: To identify priorities for quality end-of-life care from the parents' perspective. DESIGN: Anonymous, self-administered questionnaire. SETTING: Three pediatric intensive care units in Boston. PARTICIPANTS: Parents of children who had died…
Learning Objectives: Integration of pediatric palliative care (PPC) into the management of children with serious illness and their families is widely endorsed by international organizations and experts in the field as standard of care. However,…
Learning Objectives: Palliative Care (PC) is a scarce resource. Little is known about its allocation among critically ill children. Previously proposed criteria may help identify children who may benefit from PC. Method(s): This is a retrospective…
OBJECTIVES: To record the number of children with withdrawal symptoms after the administration of sedatives for mechanical ventilation, and to discuss the possible connection with the administration of midazolam. DESIGN: Retrospective data collection…
OBJECTIVE: To develop and validate a mortality risk predictor based on physiologic data that estimates daily the probability of a patient dying within the next 24 hrs as that probability changes with disease and recovery. SETTING: Nine pediatric ICUs…
A regular work day for intensivists can be emotionally draining, as we witness suffering, fear, pain,
tragedies, unfair treatment of children, death…. We may experience the mental stress of dealing with
nursing shortages, increasing family demands,…
OBJECTIVE: To describe models used in successful clinical initiatives to improve the quality of palliative care in critical care settings. DATA SOURCES: We searched the MEDLINE database from inception to April 2010 for all English language articles…
OBJECTIVE: Mechanical ventilation is a common therapy used in caring for critically ill patients, but its epidemiology is poorly understood. We describe population-based, temporal trends in the incidence, survival, and hospital bed utilization of…
OBJECTIVE: Length of stay in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) is a reflection of patient severity of illness and health status, as well as PICU quality and performance. We determined the clinical profiles and relative resource use of…
