Care of children at the end of life frequently involves ethical dilemmas and difficult decisions. These ethical dilemmas often complicate the already challenging circumstances surrounding the death of a child; therefore, the knowledge and application…
The purpose of this article is to present a model of factors that may influence a child's response to a painful procedure when parents are distraction coaches during the procedure. Nonpharmacological interventions, in particular, distraction, and…
Existing research identifies numerous variables that may influence children's distress responses during medical procedures. In preparation for a large multisite study to test relationships among these numerous variables and parent distraction…
This qualitative study investigated the caregiving experiences of mothers of children with thalassemia. Using a semistructured questionnaire, the researchers interviewed a convenient sample of 19 mothers who have children with thalassemia. A…
An in-depth exploratory study identified major stressors experienced by children diagnosed with cancer. Four themes were used to analyze data from a series of focus group discussions and individual interviews with children, parents, hospital…
A diagnosis of a long-term illness in a child will bring on a major upheaval in the lives of the whole family involved and leads to a long-standing relationship with health care personnel. The purpose of this study was to describe parents'…
Transition has been described by many disciplines. However, the concept of transition has yet to be applied to the sibling experience of childhood cancer. Understanding the transitions that siblings encounter is important because it will offer nurses…
Children's Hospital Boston began a major pain assessment and management initiative 3 years ago: Pain assessment and management are considered one of the institution's primary standards of care. The initiative included State of the Science meetings…
With improved medical technology, many chronic medical conditions of childhood are now recognized as conditions of childhood onset. Appropriate treatment of these conditions in the adult patient is required. The pediatric setting is not appropriate…
Crisis theory, stress and coping theory, and research on parental stress and coping during pediatric critical care experiences are integrated into a conceptual framework for understanding, assessing, and ultimately intervening to reduce parental…
Although the physiological implications of long-term gastrostomy for children with severe disability are well documented in the nursing literature, little is known about the psychosocial effect of this technological intervention. This study documents…
It is becoming increasingly evident that nutrition is not only an important component of health but also that levels of specific nutrients can affect disease expression. This is particularly apparent in the realm of HIV disease. Despite this…
A child's death can have a profound and lasting effect on surviving siblings. Early researchers and clinicians have suggested that siblings were at risk for serious psychopathology. However, in later studies, researchers found that although the grief…
Recently, patient controlled analgesia (PCA) has gained prominence in the treatment of pain for children suffering from vaso-occlusive crisis associated with sickle cell disease. Because there are several different regimens that can be used for PCA,…
This secondary analysis of data examined the psychosocial outcomes of meaning in caregiving, self-esteem, optimism, burden, depression, spirituality, and posttraumatic growth in 273 parents caring for children with life-limiting illnesses to (a)…
This descriptive qualitative study explored parent experiences related to their infant's neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) hospitalization, end-of-life care, and palliative care consultation. "Life and death in the NICU environment" emerged as the…
Highlights
•Parent experiences surrounding end-of-life care in the NICU were explored.
•The opportunity to be a parent was important regardless of the infant's prognosis.
•NICU nurses played a critical role in facilitating parenting.
•Living with…
