"It's a Heavy Thing to Carry:" Internal Medicine and Pediatric Resident Experiences Caring for Dying Patients
child; terminal care; article; human; emotion; Internal Medicine; interview; content analysis; education; dying; physician; resident; multidisciplinary team; genetic transcription; meaning-making; care behavior; skill; witness; tension; personhood; internal medicine; learning environment; self care
BACKGROUND: Residents often feel unprepared to care for dying patients and may benefit from more training. Little is known about factors in the clinical setting that promote resident learning about end of life (EOL) care. <br/>OBJECTIVE(S): This qualitative study aimed to characterize the experiences of residents caring for dying patients and elucidate the impact of emotional, cultural, and logistical factors on learning. <br/>METHOD(S): 6 US internal medicine and 8 pediatric residents who had cared for at least 1 dying patient completed a semi-structured one-on-one interview between 2019 and 2020. Residents described an experience caring for a dying patient including their confidence in clinical skills, emotional experience, role within the interdisciplinary team, and perspective on how to improve their education. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and investigators conducted content analysis to generate themes. <br/>RESULT(S): 3 themes (with subthemes) emerged: (1) experiencing strong emotion or tension (loss of patient personhood, emerging professional identity, emotional dissonance); (2) processing the experience (innate resilience, team support); and (3) recognition of a new perspective or skill (bearing witness, meaning making, recognizing biases, emotional work of doctoring). <br/>CONCLUSION(S): Our data suggests a model for the process by which residents learn affective skills critical to EOL care: residents (1) notice strong emotion, (2) reflect on the meaning of the emotion, and (3) crystallize this reflection into a new perspective or skill. Educators can use this model to develop educational methods that emphasize normalization of physician emotions and space for processing and professional identity formation.
Gibbon LM; Buck L; Schmidt L; Bogetz JF; Trowbridge A
American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
2023
Article information provided for research and reference use only. PedPalASCNET does not hold any rights over the resource listed here. All rights are retained by the journal listed under publisher and/or the creator(s).
<a href="http://doi.org/10.1177/10499091231181567" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">10.1177/10499091231181567</a>
Parental bereavement - impact of death of neonates and children under 12 years on personhood of parents: a systematic scoping review
Infant; Bereavement; Parents; End of life; Personhood; Paediatrics; Palliative care; Death; Neonate; Ring theory of personhood
BACKGROUND: Losing a child tragically impacts the well-being and functioning of parents. With these effects extending beyond emotional, physical morbidity and compromising self-perceptions, appropriate, longitudinal, timely and personalised support is key to effective care of bereaved parents. However, in the absence of a comprehensive understanding of parental bereavement, effective support of bereaved parents remains suboptimal. To address this gap, we scrutinise prevailing data on the effects of a child's death, aged 0-12 years, through the lens of the Ring Theory of Personhood (RToP). METHODS: To study prevailing accounts of bereaved parents following the death of a child, we adopt Krishna's Systematic Evidence Based Approach (SEBA) to structure our Systematic Scoping Review (SSR in SEBA). RESULTS: Three thousand seventy-four abstracts were reviewed, 160 full text articles were evaluated, and 111 articles were included and analysed using thematic and content analysis. Four themes/categories were identified relating to the four rings of the RToP. Findings reveal that static concepts of protective and risk factors for grief are misplaced and that the support of healthcare professionals is key to assisting bereaved parents. CONCLUSION: In the absence of consistent support of bereaved parents, this study highlights the need for effective training of healthcare professionals, beginning with an appreciation that every aspect of an individual parent's personhood is impacted by the loss of their child. Acknowledging grief as a complex, evolving and personalised process subjected to parental characteristics, settings, context and available support, this SSR in SEBA calls attention to effective nurturing of the relationship between parents and healthcare professionals, and suggests use of the RToP to assess and direct personalised, timely, specific support of parents in evolving conditions. We believe the findings of this review also call for further studies to support healthcare professionals as they journey with bereaved parents.
Vig PS; Lim JY; Lee RWL; Huang H; Tan XH; Lim WQ; Lim MBXY; Lee ASI; Chiam M; Lim C; Baral VR; Krishna LKR
BMC Palliative Care
2021
Article information provided for research and reference use only. PedPalASCNET does not hold any rights over the resource listed here. All rights are retained by the journal listed under publisher and/or the creator(s).
<a href="http://doi.org/10.1186/s12904-021-00831-1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">10.1186/s12904-021-00831-1</a>
Impact of Caring for Terminally Ill Children on Physicians: A Systematic Scoping Review
burnout; palliative care; pediatric; personhood; physicians; selfhood; terminal ill; the ring theory of personhood
INTRODUCTION: Caring for terminally ill children influences nurses' and allied health provider's quality of life, ability to provide personalized, dignified and empathetic care and even their concepts of personhood. In the absence of data this review utilizes the Ring Theory of Personhood (RToP) to evaluate how a physician's concept of personhood is affected caring for terminally ill children in order to better support them holistically. METHODS: Using PRISMA Guidelines, 14 researchers carried out independent searches of PubMed, CINAHL, PsycINFO, Cochrane Library and gray literature databases for articles published between 2000 to 2019. Concurrent and independent employment of content and thematic analysis (Split Approach) was used to enhance the trustworthiness of the analysis. RESULTS: 13,424 titles and abstracts were retrieved, 188 full texts were evaluated, and 39 articles were included and analyzed. Identical categories and themes identified using the Split Approach suggest that caring for dying children in PPC impacts the physician's professional identity, clinical decision making, personal well-being and relationships. The data also suggests that the magnitude of these effects depends on the presence of protective and risk factors. CONCLUSION: Aside from providing a novel insight into the upon the physician, this review proffers a unique approach to accounting for the presence, magnitude and influence of incoming catalysts, resultant conflicts, and protective and risk factors upon the physician's personhood. Further studies into the changes in personhood are required. Design of a personalized assessment tool based on the RToP will help direct timely, appropriate and personalized support to these physicians.
Ngiam L X L; Ong Y T; Ng J X; Kuek J T Y; Chia J L; Chan N P X; Ho C Y; Abdurrahman A; Kamal N H A; Cheong C W S; Ng C H; Tan X H; Tan L H E; Chin A M C; Mason S; Jumat M R; Chiam M; Krishna L K R
American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
2020
Article information provided for research and reference use only. PedPalASCNET does not hold any rights over the resource listed here. All rights are retained by the journal listed under publisher and/or the creator(s).
<a href="http://doi.org/10.1177/1049909120950301" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">10.1177/1049909120950301</a>
Recognizing suffering
Humans; Social Values; Esthetics; Personhood; Professional Patient Relationship; Psychological; Stress; Patients/psychology; Disease/psychology; Virtues
Implies that the profession of medicine must pursue the relief of suffering. Definition of suffering; Wholeness, person, and self-identity; Purpose; Knowing the suffering of others; Knowledge of others as individuals; Aesthetics.
1991
Cassell EJ
The Hastings Center Report
1991
Article information provided for research and reference use only. PedPalASCNET does not hold any rights over the resource listed here. All rights are retained by the journal listed under publisher and/or the creator(s).
Journal Article
<a href="http://doi.org/10.2307/3563319" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">10.2307/3563319</a>
More Than Medication: Perinatal Palliative Care
Decision Making/ethics; Humans; Infant Extremely Premature; Infant Newborn; Intensive Care Units Neonatal; Maternal-fetal Relations/psychology; Palliative Care/ethics; Palliative Care/legislation & Jurisprudence; Palliative Care/psychology; Parental Consent/ethics; Parental Consent/legislation & Jurisprudence; Parental Consent/psychology; Patient Rights/ethics; Patient Rights/legislation & Jurisprudence; Perinatal Care/ethics; Perinatal Care/legislation & Jurisprudence; Perinatal Care/standards; Personhood; Professional-family Relations; Resuscitation Orders/ethics; Resuscitation Orders/legislation & Jurisprudence; Resuscitation Orders/psychology
Editorial
Carter BS
Archives Of Disease In Childhood. Fetal And Neonatal Edition
2016
Article information provided for research and reference use only. PedPalASCNET does not hold any rights over the resource listed here. All rights are retained by the journal listed under publisher and/or the creator(s).
DOI: 10.1111/apa.13529