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…
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…
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:…
The purpose of this study was to describe the impact of peer support on post-traumatic stress disorder in parents who have experienced the death of a child, the factors associated with the parents' post-traumatic stress reactions and the parents'…
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…
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…
OBJECTIVE: To explore bereaved parents' judgements of healthcare providers, as part of a larger study examining their perceptions of the death of a child in the paediatric intensive care unit. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY: Constructivist grounded theory.…
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…
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…
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…
BACKGROUND:: Studies involving samples of children with life-threatening illnesses and their families face significant challenges, including inadequate sample sizes and limited diversity. Social media recruitment and Web-based research methods may…
PURPOSE: To explore bereaved parents' perspectives of parent and staff roles in the pediatric intensive care unit when their child was dying, and their relationships with healthcare staff during this time. DESIGN AND METHODS: Constructivist grounded…
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…
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: Decision making is a highly complex task when providing care for seriously ill children. Physicians, parents, and children face many challenges when identifying and selecting from available treatment options., METHODS: This qualitative…
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…
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: 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…
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…
Aim: To identify and assess the quality of decision aids that align the decision, values and information provided for parents making end-of-life or palliative care decisions for children with life-threatening conditions. Method(s): Six databases 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…
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…
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…
Caring for a child with a neuromuscular condition such as Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) presents many challenges, including managing the emotional impact of the diagnosis, managing extended periods of profound uncertainty, navigating the…
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…
Background: Most parents vividly recall the weeks, days, and moments preceding their child's death for years to come. Dissatisfaction with communication about their child's condition and lack of guidance can contribute to stress prior to a child's…
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…
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…
Little is known about the development of posttraumatic growth among parents of children with serious advanced disease. The purpose of this study is to describe parental posttraumatic growth 100 days after pediatric stem cell transplant. This is a…
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. AIM: This study explored the lived…
BACKGROUND: Living with a child who has a life-limiting condition (LLC) is likely to have a major impact on all family members. There is a need to have a clearer understanding of the nature and extent of this impact on parents and well-siblings. The…
OBJECTIVE: Living with a child with a life-limiting condition (LLC), for which there is no hope of cure and premature death is expected, places much stress on a family unit. Familial communication has the potential to serve as a buffer when children…
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…
BACKGROUND: While several studies have examined 'what' families want with regard to the place of a child's end-of-life care and death, few have explored 'how' parents reach a decision. AIMS: (1) to develop a model explaining how parents of a child…
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…
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. AIM: This study explored the lived…
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…
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…
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…
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…
