BACKGROUND: End-of-life decisions (EoLDs) are very difficult to make. How parents and physicians incorporate quality of life (QoL) considerations into their end-of-life decision making (EoLDM) for children with profound intellectual and multiple…
Introduction: The World Health Organisation defines paediatric palliative care (PPC) as caring for the child's body, mind, and spirit, and giving support to the family. In life-limiting conditions it is important that palliative support can be…
RESULTS: Thirty-eight parent dyads participated (return rate 84%; 35% oncological disorders). According to parental report, dyspnea (61%) and pain (58%) were the dominant symptoms with an overall high symptom load (83%). Pain, agitation, and seizures…
Background/objectives: Shared decision-making is widely accepted as the best approach for end-of-life decision-making for children with life-limiting conditions. Both paediatricians and parents find benefit in preparing for such decisions. However,…
The patient's perspective is an essential component of understanding the individual experience of suffering in children with palliative needs, but it is a perspective that is often overlooked. The aim of this study was to compare the perception of…
Background: Smith-Lemli-Opitz syndrome (SLOS) is an autosomal recessive inborn error of cholesterol metabolism syndrome with neurocognitive manifestations. SLOS is the result of mutations in the gene encoding the 7-dehydrocholesterol reductase, which…
PURPOSE: Neonatal palliative care guidelines increasingly recommend that parents be encouraged to provide care for their dying baby and to spend time with the before and after death. However, little is currently known about how parents perceive such…
PURPOSE: Perinatal and neonatal palliative care guidelines recommend the provision of photographs and other mementos as an element of care for parents bereaved by neonatal loss. However, little is known about parents' perceptions of such bereavement…
OBJECTIVES: Therapeutic alliance is the collaborative bond that develops between patients/families and healthcare providers. Our objective is to determine the extent of therapeutic alliance bereaved parents perceive to have occurred with their…
AIM: Parents' role as end-of-life decision-makers for their child has become largely accepted Western health-care practice. How parents subsequently view and live with the end-of-life decision (ELD) they made has not been extensively examined. To…
Recent studies have shown that rates of depression and anxiety symptoms are elevated among individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) of various ages and IQs and that depression/anxiety symptoms are associated with higher IQ and fewer ASD…
Importance: Attitudes toward end-of-life decision-making in neonatology have been studied in physicians and other health care professionals and are mostly shaped by their clinical education and work experiences. In contrast, attitudes among the…
Aim: This work explores the experiences and meaning attributed by parents who underwent the decision-making process of withholding and/or withdrawing life-sustaining treatment for their newborn. Methods: Audio-recorded face-to-face interviews were…
Today more and more children are living with complex health care needs, many of these children are living with life limiting and/or threatening conditions, some are medically fragile. To live a childhood these children must live in communities and…
Background: Palliative care (PC) in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) is often provided exclusively to infants expected to die. Standards of care support providing PC early after diagnosis with any condition likely to impact quality of…
Objectives: Children with intellectual disability experience patient safety issues resulting in poor care experiences and health outcomes. This study sought to identify patient safety issues that pertain to children aged 0-16 years with intellectual…
Despite the continuous improvement of pediatric palliative care, medical professionals still face various barriers regarding its implementation; our aim was to investigate this question in Hungarian pediatric oncology practice. Structured interviews…
Background: Paediatric Palliative Care (PPC) has undergone rapid growth in Portugal, where there are over 7800 children with life-limiting conditions. This is a complex experience for families due to the ongoing threat and vulnerability caused by the…
Full text linksCite Abstract Background: Parents of medically complex children hold deeply personal definitions of how to be "good parents" that guide their medical decision making and interactions with providers and are impacted by provider…
Background: Few studies have examined the spiritual environment of parents of children receiving palliative care in Southern European countries, which are mostly characterized by secularization (or the abandonment of traditional religiosity) and an…
Objective: To investigate critical care physicians' experiences and perspectives regarding follow-up meetings with parents after a child's death in the pediatric intensive care unit. Parents of children who die in the pediatric intensive care unit…
OBJECTIVE: This multicenter, parallel-group, randomized trial examined the effects of an animal-assisted intervention on the stress, anxiety, and health-related quality of life for children diagnosed with cancer and their parents. METHOD: Newly…
When medicine proves to be powerless to cure a child suffering from cancer, there remains the path of accompaniment by what we call palliative care. This is very different from the treatments that have been administered up to now - since they are not…
We aimed to characterize the parent experience of caring for an infant with neonatal encephalopathy. In this mixed-methods study, we performed semistructured interviews with parents whose infants were enrolled in an existing longitudinal cohort study…
Physicians often disclose serious news with patients and families; however, many clinicians experience anxiety around these conversations.1 Fear of their patients' and their own emotional reactions may cause providers to avoid these conversations…
Background: End-stage renal disease (ESRD) affects nearly 1400 new children each year in the United States. Morbidity and mortality rates remain high for pediatric patients with ESRD, including those that have received a renal transplant. Objective:…
Introduction. Parents of a child diagnosed with a life-threatening illness often experience the state of cognitive and emotional disorganization. The key factor determining parents-physicians cooperation is the quality of their relations. That is why…
The emotional turmoil associated with extremely preterm birth is inescapable parents. How each parent handles the unexpected, makes sense of the unknown and learns to parent their child is uniquely personal. A rigid standardized approach to support…
OBJECTIVES: Neonatal palliative care (NPC) is an emerging subset of care in United States (US) neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) that provides relief for both infants and families at the end of life for infants with terminal diagnoses. Families…
To examine the parent's experiences of bonding in the care of newborns who were seriously ill during the neonatal period and did not survive. Design: Data were collected through 7 interviews with 10 parents whose infants were cared for and died in a…
Few studies have described the goals and wishes of parents caring for their children with rare diseases, specifically when children are unable to communicate their preferences directly. The purpose of this study was to describe the parent's…
Research Framework: In serious illness, the proliferation of therapeutic possibilities often delays the moment when death is foreseen and when palliative care, too often associated with the end of life and death, is introduced into patients’ care…
AIM: The ability to communicate serious news to patients and families in a caring and compassionate way is a critical skill for physicians. This study explores the impact of a novel communication skills workshop that included bereaved parents in role…
The demands of caring for a child with a life-limiting condition can have a profound impact on parents' health and wellbeing. Currently, there is no standard procedure for identifying and addressing the support needs of these parents. Aim: To assess…
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Decisional regret is common in bereaved parents. We aimed to identify factors associated with and to explain patterns of parental decisional regret. METHODS: We used a convergent mixed-methods design including quantitative…
Context Bereaved parents may have heightened risk for decisional regret; however, little is known about regret early in bereavement. Objectives We characterized decisional regrets endorsed by parents of children who died from cancer within the first…
The Boston Children's Hospital Hematology/Oncology Bereavement Program has supported bereaved parents for three decades following the death of their child from cancer or blood disorder. An analysis of the current bereavement program as well as a…
Background: Individuals with cystic fibrosis (CF) face the challenges of managing a chronic, progressive disease. While palliative care is a standard of care in serious illnesses, there are no guidelines for its incorporation into CF care. Patients…
AIM: Understanding of coping strategies that parents use before the death of their child is crucial, and will enable us to best provide support. The current study aimed to explore parents' coping strategies, and map these onto an existing theoretical…
OBJECTIVE: While improvements in healthcare have resulted in children with complex and life-threatening conditions living longer, a proportion of them still die. The death of a child puts parents at increased risk for anxiety, depression, and…
