BACKGROUND:
Hospice and Palliative Medicine (HPM) competencies are of growing importance in training general pediatricians and pediatric sub-specialists. The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) emphasized pediatric trainees…
The purpose of this descriptive correlational study was to determine whether nurse characteristics, level of comfort with care of the dying, and spirituality predict intention to refer and timing of referral to pediatric palliative/hospice care. The…
OBJECTIVE:
Improving quality of life (QOL) is the central focus of palliative care support for children with life-limiting illness (LLI), but achieving this can be challenging.
INTERVENTION:
MyQuality is an online tool that enables families to choose…
Children and adolescents with complex chronic conditions often receive pediatric palliative care (PPC) from health care professionals. However, children's needs exist both in a health care context and in the community where children interact with…
BACKGROUND:
Perinatal palliative care (PPC) programs are proliferating nationwide, but little is known about their structure, process, or desired outcomes, to inform future program development.
OBJECTIVE:
To explicate structure, processes, and…
CONTEXT:
The need for children's palliative care (CPC) globally is unknown. To understand the scope of the need and to advocate to meet it, more accurate estimates are needed.
OBJECTIVES:
The objective of this study was to create an accurate global…
The children's palliative care sector requires a specific set of knowledge and skills in its workforce. Maintaining high levels of competence and leadership can be challenging if staff move out of the sector, retire or several key people leave.…
Background: Historically, the social aspects of death, dying and bereavement have been given insufficient attention by palliative care services; this has had an adverse effect on how patients and their families experience end-of-life and bereavement.…
Palliative care is needed for children with neurodegenerative and progressive neuromuscular diseases, inborn genetic (e.g., chromosomal disorders, deletion syndromes) or metabolic disorders, as well as for children with early brain lesions which can…
Aim Symptom assessment is a core component of paediatric palliative care. This audit aimed to determine whether the symptoms of children attending for routine short breaks in a children's hospice were assessed. The development of a formal symptom…
Background Supporting siblings following loss of an infant is increasingly recognised as an important aspect of neonatal bereavement support. The grief process in children is often complicated by feelings of loss, guilt as well insecurity about their…
Aims Children's hospices provide a range of services for children with life limiting (LLC) and life threatening conditions (LTC). Referral previously relied on obtaining supporting views from the child's paediatrician and there was often delay…
Adolescents with life-limiting illnesses have intensive end-of-life trajectories and could benefit from initiation of hospice services. The medical home model, which includes having a usual source of primary care, may help facilitate quality outcomes…
Little is known about the prevalence, characterization and treatment of pain in children with progressive neurologic, metabolic or chromosomal conditions with impairment of the central nervous system. The primary aims of this study were to explore…
OBJECTIVE: To assess the involvement of volunteers with direct patient/family contact in UK palliative care services for children and young people. METHOD: Cross-sectional survey using a web-based questionnaire. SETTING: UK specialist paediatric…
The specialist provision of paediatric palliative care is a relatively new discipline. This article will review the epidemiology of paediatric palliative care and will discuss the current delivery of this care within the United Kingdom. The author…
Background: Non-medical prescribing is well established within the British health service, with increasing numbers of nurses practicing within children's hospices. Aim: To identify the context of non-medical prescribing in children's hospices in the…
Internal data from the sole pediatric hospice in British Columbia were utilized to investigate mortality trends among children dying from life-threatening conditions. Characteristics of the sample (hospice) were compared to that of the population…
This study was an exploratory inquiry into the role of music therapy for pre-bereaved informal hospice caregivers. Pre-bereavement has been an area of increased scholarly and clinical focus across multiple healthcare fields over the past decade, and…
The objectives of this study were to examine (1) the extent to which hospice palliative care volunteers are involved in program and patient/family advocacy, (2) volunteers' willingness to engage in program and patient/family advocacy, and (3)…
Content: The use of recreational, expressive, and integrative methods of providing supportive care to patients and families coping with cancer is growing in cancer treatment settings. One such method is animal-assisted interventions (AAI). From the…
Purpose: There is lack of standardized resident' curriculum or training for the rapidly emerging field of pediatric end of life care. Goal: To assess pediatric residents' perception of their clinical competence with end of life care and their…
Cancer care with curative intent remains difficult to manage in many resource-limited settings such as Cambodia. Cambodia has a small workforce with limited financial and health-care resources resulting in delayed diagnoses and availability of…
Background: Giving care to a patient at the end of life can be a challenging and confronting experience. The responsibilities of care giving may include executing complex physical and mental tasks, financial planning, patient care decision making,…
CONTEXT: Pediatric palliative care has no evidence-based needs assessment measure. The Parent and Child Needs Survey (PCNeeds) is a new instrument designed to assess the needs of children in palliative care, including children receiving end-of-life…
Objective: To map and describe the geographic distribution of pediatric hospice care need versus supply in California over a 4-year time period (2007-2010). Methods: Multiple databases were used for this descriptive longitudinal study. The sample…
Grounded theory methods were used to study the experiences of 8 bereaved fathers whose children received care in a home-based hospice program. In-depth, unstructured interviews were audiotaped, transcribed, and coded for themes and categories. Every…
INTRODUCTION: Delayed discussion of a patient's code status can lead to shortsighted care plans that increase hospital length of stay (LOS) and costs., METHODS: Retrospective study compared intensive care unit (ICU) patients who accepted verses…
Background: Palliative care (PC) has been shown to improve quality of life, symptom burden, and mood in patients with advanced solid tumors as well as those with hematologic malignancies undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT).…
Background: The Centre for Pediatric Palliative Care at the Medical Center of the University of Munich is one of the largest in Germany. Care is provided yearly to 90-100 children with advanced lifelimiting diseases living at home (at a distance of…
BACKGROUND: Infant deaths account for a majority of all pediatric deaths. However, little is known about the factors that influence parents to use hospice care for their infant with a life-threatening health condition. METHODS: Data were used from…
Editor’s note: This new recurring feature will showcase novel hospital-based programs, innovations, and outreach initiatives that are meeting children’s health care needs in
Purpose:To describe the suggested clinical practice of palliative sedation as it is presented in the literature and discuss available guidelines for its use. METHODS: CINAHL, PubMed, and Web of Science were searched for publications since 1997 for…
Internal data from the sole pediatric hospice in British Columbia were utilized to investigate mortality trends among children dying from life-threatening conditions. Characteristics of the sample (hospice) were compared to that of the population…
BACKGROUND Recent research shows a rising national prevalence of Life Limiting Conditions in children identifying an escalating need for paediatric palliative care services in the UK.(1) Hospice services must ensure quality, sustainable care and…
OBJECTIVES: Several barriers have been identified as preventing or delaying accessing to children's palliative care services. The aim of this study is to further explore such barriers from palliative care professionals' perspective from two London…
