OBJECTIVE: To implement and evaluate a quality improvement program of interdisciplinary palliative care education and support intended to increase the competence, confidence and ability to manage personal grief of health care professionals caring for…
OBJECTIVE: To describe our institutional experience with a four-week pediatric HPM elective rotation and its impact on residents' self-rated competencies. BACKGROUND: In the spirit of bolstering primary hospice and palliative medicine (HPM) skills of…
Background: The impact of specialty pediatric palliative care (PPC) on intensive care unit (ICU) length of stay for children is unclear. Objective: To estimate the impact of PPC consultation by analyzing ICU stay as a dynamic outcome over the course…
Abstract Background: Missing data is a common phenomenon with survey-based research; patterns of missing data may elucidate why participants decline to answer certain questions. Objective: To describe patterns of missing data in the Pediatric Quality…
BACKGROUND: Promoting resilience is an aspect of psychosocial care that affects patient and whole-family well-being. There is little consensus about how to define or promote resilience during and after pediatric cancer. OBJECTIVES: The aims of this…
Background: Palliative care program service delivery is variable, and programs often lack data to support and guide program development and growth. Objective: To review the development and key features of the National Palliative Care Registry ("the…
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…
Abstract Background: The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that palliative care be available to seriously ill hospitalized children, yet little is known about how these services are structured. Objective: The study's aim is to report the…
Background: To allay uneasiness among clinicians and institutional review board members about pediatric palliative care research and to yield new knowledge relevant to study methods, documenting burdens and benefits of this research on children and…
Abstract Background: Outpatient palliative care services can improve patient outcomes, yet little is known about their structure and characteristics. Objective: To describe the structure and characteristics of outpatient palliative care services…
BACKGROUND: Pediatric palliative care (PPC) aims to promote quality of life for children and their families through prevention and relief of physical and psychosocial symptoms. Little is known about how PPC/hospice services impact health care…
Background: How children die in pediatric intensive care units (PICUs) has been poorly described, and support for parents during this traumatic experience could be improved. Better information on perceptible signs of the end of life (EOL) in children…
BACKGROUND: Dyspnea is one of the most frequent symptoms in children with complex chronic conditions (CCC) requiring palliative care. Although it is a subject of high importance, there has been little research on dyspnea in critically ill children.…
BACKGROUND: Pediatric medical experiences are potentially traumatic but may lead to psychological growth. OBJECTIVE: The study objective was to synthesize the published literature regarding posttraumatic growth (PTG) in parents and patients with…
BACKGROUND: The impact of psychosocial research participation has not been examined systematically in palliative care settings. Concerns are often raised regarding the potential for distress among terminally ill patients. This is particularly true…
Description: Improving Familiarity with Pediatric Palliative Care Among Pediatric and Internal Medicine-Pediatric Residents. Objectives: To increase familiarity with and comfort level in providing pediatric palliative care in inpatient and outpatient…
BACKGROUND: Research found that low levels of professional confidence and personal comfort among neonatal clinicians regarding palliative care may indicate a lack of competence and hesitancy to offer neonatal palliative care services. PURPOSE: This…
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Delirium in terminally ill cancer patients causes considerable distress to family members. The aim was to determine the family-perceived usefulness of a leaflet about delirium in terminally ill cancer patients. METHODS:…
BACKGROUND: In questionnaire-based research, human subject protection committees must assess the emotional impact of the study on participants. Without clear data about the risks and benefits of participating in such studies, however, review board…
BACKGROUND: Physicians are often asked to prognosticate patient survival. However, prediction of survival is difficult, particularly with critically ill and dying patients within the hospitals. The Palliative Performance Scale (PPS) was designed to…
This report describes the multiple complementary analytic methods used to create a composite evaluation of the benefits of a hospital-based inpatient palliative care consultation service at Montefiore Medical Center in its preliminary phase. We…
Background: High-quality hospice care is characterized by patient-centered care and shared decision making between patients, families, and health care workers. However, little is known regarding the frequency and characteristics of patient and family…
Background: Clinicians and parents are expected to make medical treatment decisions in the child's best interests. To reach their decisions, clinicians typically apply a principled approach outlined by Beauchamp and Childress. How parents make…
Background: Assessing the quality of life (QoL) of children receiving end-of-life (EoL) care through evaluations by the children and their bereaved families is challenging; presently, there is no QoL assessment measure that is appropriate for use in…
PURPOSE: In February 2002, the palliative care team was established in Ikeda Municipal Hospital to improve palliative care. We investigated changes in the incidences of side effects related to opioids, and evaluated palliative care team activities.…
Description: Background: Pediatric palliative care is an interdisciplinary service that works to enhance the quality of life for children with serious illness. Unfortunately, the need for palliative care is difficult to ascertain and is often…
As the field of Pediatric Palliative Care continues to develop, it is important to consider the scope of practice and the utility of collaboration with other specialties, including child and adolescent psychiatry. The integration of psychiatry and…
Background: Pediatric palliative care occurs across contexts through the child's illness trajectory, including within the child or young person's community. Interactions with the ambulance service may occur with a child's deterioration, crisis, or…
Background: Parenting children with life-threatening illness (LTI) and their healthy siblings requires parents to consider their various needs. Objective and Methods: We conducted a concurrent, cross-sectional mixed-methods study to describe…
BACKGROUND: The Institute of Medicine and the American Academy of Pediatrics has called for improvement in education and training of pediatricians in pediatric palliative care (PPC). Given the shortage of PPC physicians and the immediate need for PPC…
Cachexia is a disturbing and disfiguring aspect of many advanced cancers. Parenteral nutrition (PN) is a controversial and expensive treatment for cancer cachexia. Guidelines for the use of PN for these patients have been suggested. These two case…
