Background Good end-of-life care planning is vital to ensure optimal care is provided for patients and their families. Two key factors are open and honest advance care planning conversations between the patient (where possible), family, and health…
Two bereaved mothers recount how they made meaning after the deaths of their children, recounting how opportunities to tell their stories in medical settings enabled them to construct narratives that promoted resilience and a sense of control.…
Social media is an important access point for engagement of children and adolescents. For individuals with a life-limiting illness or serving as the caregiver for an ill child, social media can be a helpful outlet for support and information…
Background: Despite the number of interprofessional team members caring for children at the end of life, little evidence exists on how institutions can support their staff in providing care in these situations. Objective: We sought to evaluate which…
Pediatric advance care planning seeks to ensure end-of-life care conforming to the patients/their families' preferences. To expand our knowledge of advance care planning and "medical orders for life-sustaining treatment" (MOLST) in pediatric…
Background Technological advances have decreased PICU mortality but increased the number of children surviving with disability or technologically-dependent. Death in PICU most frequently follows withdrawal of life-sustaining therapy (LST),…
Aims In June 2016, Bill C-14 was enacted in the Canadian Parliament, allowing medical assistance in dying (MAID) for consenting adults with 'grievous and irremediable medical conditions' experiencing 'intolerable' suffering whose deaths are…
Introduction: Despite significant advances in disease treatment, resources for the pediatric palliative care (PPC) for children with serious illnesses are limited in South Korea. The obstacles to provide optimal PPC include inadequate funding,…
Since 2005, forgoing live-support (FLS) is allowed by the French law (known as the Leonetti law) for end-of-life patients only. This study aims at describing the variations over time in the use of the following methods to end life: FLS, brain death…
A 3-year-old girl with no particular medical history complained of a stomachache and died on the way to the hospital. The autopsy revealed marked right ventricular hypertrophy and dilation with no other cardiac abnormalities. Microscopically, the…
To understand more about final conversations (communication between loved ones from the point of terminal diagnosis until death), 49 children/adolescents provided final conversation advice for other youth and for the dying person. Advice for fellow…
This study explored parental self-identity at 6, 12, and 18 months following the death of a child to cancer. Semi-structured interviews were analyzed using qualitative methodology. Two patterns of parental self-identity emerged: identity…
Background: There has been a breadth of research on the grief experience of parents following the death of a child. However, the role and impact of hospital-based bereaved services remain unclear. Aim: To identify services offered to bereaved…
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…
BACKGROUND: Coping with grief after a child's death is a complex and dynamic process. The Two-Track Model of Bereavement, which served as the theoretical framework for this study, examines biopsychosocial reactions to bereavement (track I) and…
OBJECTIVE: To determine the accuracy of postmortem computed tomography (PMCT) for the assessment of causes in nontraumatic deaths in children. STUDY DESIGN: We enrolled cases of nontraumatic deaths of infants and children who underwent PMCT at a…
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: There is increasing unmet need for solid organ donation. Alternative donor sources, such as donation after circulatory determination of death (DCDD), are needed. The objective of this study was to examine the impact of DCDD…
AIM: To evaluate the efficacy of a home care program, closely integrated with a medical oncology department. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The charts, prospectively recorded, of all the patients treated at home by the "L'Aquila per la Vita" Home Care Unit…
While bereavement camps serve as a support for children, this study examines a therapeutic recreation-based camp for families who have lost a child. The study triangulated documents, researcher reflection and staff interviews to highlight the themes…
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…
Although grief is a normal response to loss, the death of a child is believed to be one of the most difficult losses a person can endure, and bereaved parents are considered to be an "at-risk" group. Even though most deaths of children in the United…
Context The stage theory of grief remains a widely accepted model of bereavement adjustment still taught in medical schools, espoused by physicians, and applied in diverse contexts. Nevertheless, the stage theory of grief has previously not been…
Congruence between preferred and actual place of death may be an essential component in terminal care. Most patients prefer a home death, but many patients do not die in their preferred location. Specialized (physician, hospice, and palliative) home…
OBJECTIVE: To investigate parents' perspectives on the desirability, content, and conditions of a physician-parent conference after their child's death in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU). STUDY DESIGN: Audio-recorded telephone interviews…
The death of a child is a traumatic event that can have long-term effects on the lives of parents. This study examined bereaved parents of deceased children (infancy to age 34) and comparison parents with similar backgrounds (n = 428 per group)…
OBJECTIVE: Communicating bad news about a child's illness is a difficult task commonly faced by intensive care physicians. Greater understanding of parents' scope of experiences with bad news during their child's hospitalization will help physicians…
OBJECTIVE: Many childhood deaths in the United States occur in intensive care settings. The environmental needs of parents experiencing their child's death in a pediatric intensive care unit must be understood to design facilities that comfort at the…
This article reports on the first stage of a process to develop a clinical performance indicator for a community-based palliative care service that may inform the development of an agreed set of indicators for the whole sector. The study explores…
OBJECTIVE: Studies of symptoms in children dying a cancer-related death typically rely on medical chart reviews or parental responses to symptom checklists. However, the mere presence of a symptom does not necessarily correspond with the distress it…
Theories of bereavement continue to change and develop. This literature review explores the history of Western bereavement theories, beginning with Freud's grief work, moving to the stage theories, and concluding with current constructivist thought…
STUDY OBJECTIVES: More than two thirds of family members visiting intensive care unit (ICU) patients have symptoms of anxiety or depression during the first days of hospitalization. Identifying determinants of these symptoms would help caregivers…
This longitudinal study examined the relative impact of major variables for predicting adjustment (in terms of both grief and depression) among bereaved parents following the death of their child. Couples (N = 219) participated 6, 13, and 20 months…
BACKGROUND: The loss of a child is considered one of the most stressful events in the life of a parent. We hypothesized that parental bereavement increases the risk of hospital admission for a psychiatric disorder, especially for affective disorders.…
