While overall survival has improved significantly for children with cancer over the past 75 years, cancer remains the leading cause of death from disease among children and adolescents. Further, despite the many advances in medical and nursing care,…
Since its inception in 2010, the Concurrent Care for Children Provision of the Affordable Care Act has enabled seriously ill pediatric patients and their families to access comprehensive, supportive hospice services while simultaneously receiving…
BACKGROUND: Many of the leading causes of infant mortality are diagnosed prenatally, presenting providers with the ability to present perinatal palliative care planning as an option. OBJECTIVE: Our study adds to the literature both by describing…
Background: In 2018, >75,000 children were newly affected by the diagnosis of advanced cancer in a parent. Unfortunately, few programs exist to help parents and their children manage the impact of advanced disease together as a family. The Enhancing…
There is a growing movement in children's hospice care to offer families time with their baby after death through use of a "cold cot"; however, there is very limited research in this area. We interviewed seven parents (four mothers and three…
Importance: Many of the 50 000 children who die annually are eligible for provision of community-based hospice care, yet few hospice organizations offer formal pediatric services. Population-level data demonstrate that hospice nurses lack training,…
Background: Emily's House Children's Hospice (EH) located in Toronto, Canada provides respite, transitional care, symptom management, and end-of-life (EoL) care. Children with serious medical conditions and their families may access any program over…
Grief support changes as more is learned from current grief theory and research. The authors provide a comprehensive overview of current grief support as it relates to Pediatric Palliative Care (PPC). The following aspects of grief are addressed: (1)…
BACKGROUND: Palliative care is an important component of pediatric oncology care, especially for children who will not be cured of their disease. However, barriers remain to integration of this service. One barrier is the perception that it indicates…
Parents of ill children have willingly identified their personal beliefs about what they should do or focus on to fulfill their own internal definition of being a good parent for their child. This observation has led to the development of the…
Program Goals: Our program is uniquely positioned in a safety net hospital that serves as a large tertiary referral center for pediatric transplant, trauma and heart failure as well as being an international catchment area for the southern…
Background Memory making is the process of creating mementos of a child with a life-limiting condition, who may be at or near end of life, providing a tangible and visual connection to the child who has died. Acorns memory making work already…
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…
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 and aims High symptom burden has been recognised in children with life-limiting conditions (LLC) and symptom assessment and management is a core component of children's palliative care (CPC). A previous audit highlighted a high prevalence…
Perinatal palliative care is an emerging branch of children's palliative care. This study sought to better understand the pattern of antenatal referrals and the role of a specialist paediatric palliative care (PPC) team in supporting families…
CONTEXT: Given workforce and funding constraints, pediatric hospice and palliative care clinicians often find challenges providing services for seriously ill children and families, particularly in low resource and rural/remote areas. OBJECTIVES: To…
Background Children with life-limiting conditions are living longer, so relationships between nurses and families can span decades (Maunder 2013)2. Although long-term relationships between nurses and children/families in paediatric palliative care…
Despite vast improvements in disease-based treatments, many children live with life-threatening disorders that cause distressing symptoms. These symptoms can be difficult to comprehensively assess and manage. Yet, frequent and accurate symptom…
Objectives: * Compare the benefits of a primary palliative care model to those of a specialty palliative care service. * Propose a stepwise process to initiate the transition from a specialty palliative care service to a primary palliative care…
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…
Purpose: Pediatric patients (pt) awaiting heart transplantation (HTX) are among the most fragile patients, even more so when on continuous milrinone infusion or ventricular assist device (VAD). These pt are often in the hospital for very long periods…
BACKGROUND: Perinatal palliative care (PPC) is an emerging concept in fetal medicine that offers quality of life options and anticipatory grief management for families of fetuses with complex conditions. Few PPC outcomes are detailed in peer-reviewed…
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,…
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…
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…
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…
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: Pediatric home-based palliative care and/or hospice provider (Physician, Advanced Practice Nurse, or Physician Assistant) home visits are an underexplored subject in the literature with little available descriptive data and limited…
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)…
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…
Background: Hospice and palliative medicine is important in the education of pediatric residents. Little is known about if and how residents' learnings during a pediatric palliative care elective fulfill core competencies and Pediatrics…
Objectives: 1. Describe patterns of pediatric palliative care and care disparities in neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) patients and families hospitalized in the Deep South (Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi). 2. Describe implications for…
Theories of good death focused on acceptance, control, and meaning-making inform adult palliative care in high-resource settings. As children's palliative and hospice care (CPHC) develops in resource-limited settings, critical conceptualisations of a…
Objective: A proportion of children die, making them potentially eligible to be organ/tissue donors. Not all are approached for donation, and experiences of those parents are not well understood. The objective was to investigate to what extent organ…
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…
BACKGROUND: Regional studies show that children with cancer receive medically intense end-of-life (EOL) care, but EOL care patterns, including palliative care utilization in Alabama, remain unknown. METHODS: This was a retrospective study of 233…
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…
