BACKGROUND:
Prior research has shown that less than 40% of pediatric program directors believe their graduating residents competent in palliative care. While many curricula have been developed to address this need, few have demonstrated improved…
BACKGROUND: Pain and irritability of unknown origin (PIUO) is a challenging problem for nonverbal children with severe neurological impairments. PIUO is not associated with an identifiable source of nociceptive-inflammatory or neuropathic pain.…
OBJECTIVES: Pediatric healthcare professionals (HCPs) working in a palliative setting may experience challenges during their clinical practice in addressing the complex end-of-life phase of children and their families. Nurses, especially, have a…
Caring for a child with a life-limiting condition brings a number of challenges and many families require additional support. The need for services to move away from a 'one size fits all' approach to a personalised care planning approach is well…
Few tools are available to pediatricians for tracking and monitoring disability status in children. We describe the conceptual basis and pilot use of the Functional Independence Measure for Children (WeeFIM). Our pilot use of this instrument in…
BACKGROUND: There is a need for an instrument to record a life-course perspective of self-rated health. AIM: To test the "health-line", a simple, comprehensive method of collecting data on self-rated health over time. METHOD: In 1996, a questionnaire…
Systematic assessment of the effect of clinical research studies on child and parent participants has been limited. Such assessment could provide an empirical basis for the ethical conduct of research, assisting investigators and institutional review…
Background: Bereaved parents value receiving support from their children's health care teams. Pediatric residents are important members of the teams that care for children at end of life and can play a meaningful role in communication with bereaved…
PURPOSE: The rationale underlying this study was the need to move the transition health services model from a theoretical framework to an empirically-based investigation. Thus, it was necessary to identify programs for youth with chronic or disabling…
BACKGROUND: Mobile phones are familiar to most nurses, but the applications available for voice recording and transfer of audio files in research may not be. AIM: To provide an overview of a pilot study which trialled the use of mobile phones,…
BACKGROUND: Continuity of care is a key component of care in complex and chronic conditions. Despite its importance, it is often absent in chronic-disease management. One challenge has been identifying tools to measure care continuity. In one context…
BACKGROUND: Values clarification can assist families facing the threat of periviable delivery in navigating the complexity of competing values related to death, disability, and quality of life (QOL). OBJECTIVE: We piloted values clarification…
OBJECTIVE: Decisions to forgo life support from critically ill children are commonly faced by parents and physicians. Previous research regarding parents' perspectives on the decision-making process has been limited by retrospective methods and the…
BACKGROUND: In 2004, a review of pilot studies published in seven major medical journals during 2000-01 recommended that the statistical analysis of such studies should be either mainly descriptive or focus on sample size estimation, while results…
