This study describes the influence of a palliative care team on location of death and location of death discussions with patients/caregivers, and determines whether location of death discussions influence location of death. With palliative care or a…
BACKGROUND:
Bereaved parents experience significant psychosocial and health sequelae, suggesting that this population may benefit from the ongoing extension of support and resources throughout the grief journey. The interaction of hospital staff with…
Purpose: High-quality communication is a standard of palliative care for adolescents and young adults (AYAs) with cancer. Yet, few studies have characterized the negative communication experiences of AYAs near the end of life (EOL). Method(s): We…
Medical assistance in dying (MAID) legislation in Canada followed much deliberation after the Supreme Court of Canada's ruling in Carter v. Canada Included in this deliberation was the Special Joint Committee on Physician Assisted Dying's…
Aims & Objectives: To develop three linked projects to enumerate, reflect upon and identify ways to improve the experience of children with life limiting conditions (LLC) admitted to PICU without previous contact with palliative care services or…
Aims & Objectives: End of life conversations form the basis of many complex communication scenarios in paediatric intensive care (PICU). These conversations are sometimes initiated late in the disease process. Anecdotal evidence is that many…
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…
BackgroundThe death of a newborn is a traumatic life changing event in the lives of parents. We hypothesized that bereaved parents of newborn infants want to have choices in the personal care of their infant at the end of life.MethodsParents who had…
Purpose According to the most recently published data from National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization, approximately 78% of hospice providers in the United States serve pediatric patients, and the majority of these serve 1-10 patients per…
Modelling length of stay in neonatal care is vital to inform service planning and the counselling of parents. Preterm babies, at the highest risk of mortality, can have long stays in neonatal care and require high resource use. Previous work has…
Background/Objectives: As cancer care has improved, so has the understanding that children with cancer are at risk for psychological distress. The American Academy of Pediatrics has highlighted the importance of addressing these concerns. Our study…
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…
OBJECTIVE: To understand the meanings assigned by bereaved parents to their relationships with healthcare professionals during the end-of-life hospitalization of their child. METHOD: Qualitative-interpretative study based on hermeneutics. Data were…
For the sizeable subset of adolescents and young adults whose cancer is incurable, developmentally appropriate end-of-life discussions are critical. Standards of care for adolescent and young adult end-of-life communication have been established,…
The Grief Experience Inventory (GEI) and the MMPI were used to assess bereavement reactions in 102 newly bereaved individuals; 107 controls were also assessed. Intensities of bereavement reactions were compared across three types of deaths…
Introduction: In Italy there are approximately 12000 children affected by life-limiting illnesses, which require palliative care services. The national reality, however, confirms the lack of a proper palliative care services network to ensure relief…
Perinatal loss may deeply affect the attachment relationships of mothers and their next-born children. The aim was to explore the subjective perceptions of mothers, who had fetal death during the first pregnancy, and their adult subsequent firstborn…
When an infant dies at the height of the mother-child attachment period, the experience is traumatic and shattering for the mother. Examining successful resolution of this loss requires a distinction between adjustment to the external reality of loss…
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…
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…
Studies have found that sibling loss is associated with an increased risk of death from external causes (i.e. suicides, accidents and homicides). Increased psychiatric health problems following bereavement could underlie such an association. We…
Lived experiences of childhood cancer patients and their families have been described as interrupted and as a loss of normal life. Apart from symptoms due to the cancer disease, families continuously experience burden of treatment. Since coping…
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)…
Investigators of sibling bereavement contend that the death of a sibling represents a unique and intense loss experience. The empirical literature, however, lacks conceptual clarity about the characteristics of sibling bereavement. Metaphors of…
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…
A program of education and support is essential for children and their parent or adult caregivers when the children have experienced the death of a significant person. Children need guidance on how to deal with their profound feelings of grief. The…
BACKGROUND: Childhood bereavement after sibling death is common, but often unrecognized. The psychosomatic and socioeconomic outcomes of bereaved children can be compromised if appropriate care is unavailable during the formative years leading into…
BACKGROUND: Patients with a terminal illness should have access to their chosen location of death. Cancer is the leading cause of non-accidental death among adolescents and young adults (AYAs; those aged 15-39 years). Although surveys have suggested…
As medical students and residents, we have all grappled with patient death and dying at some point in our training. These experiences often remain with us, informing our clinical practice, our personal wellbeing, and the ways in which we build…
Background: Despite advances in pediatric oncology care, most children that die each year from cancer report significant suffering at end-of-life. Commonly reported symptoms include pain, anxiety, and nausea. More than half of pediatric cancer…
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…
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: To provide support to parents of critically ill children, it is important that physicians adequately respond to parents' emotions. In this study, we investigated emotions expressed by parents, physicians' responses to these…
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…
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…
Research aim: The main aim was to describe the needs of parents caring for a terminally ill child during the course of the illness, the time of dying, and after the death of the child. Secondary aim was to identify the risk factors occurring during…
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…
Abstract
INTRODUCTION:
All-cause infant and childhood mortality has decreased in the UK over the last 30 years. Advances in paediatric critical care have increased survival in paediatric intensive care units (PICUs) but may have affected how and when…
