Health care providers caring for patients at the end of life (EOL) are faced with a multitude of emotions such as guilt, anger, sadness, and helplessness. Because of the negative impact of initiating EOL care (EOLC) to the pediatric population,…
Communication is a central aspect of nursing care and is especially important when pertaining to progressive illnesses and end of life. This article reviews basic palliative care terminology and outlines a variety of communication frameworks from the…
Physicians who care for children with life-threatening conditions are uniquely positioned to support families through the dying phase when treatment efforts have failed. Taking on this role for families requires a great deal of time and strategic…
OBJECTIVES: (1) To operationalise our previously published definition of neonatal serious illness by applying it to a patient cohort and (2) to evaluate timing of palliative care consultation, goals of care discussions and meeting serious illness…
Background: Provision of and access to paediatric end-of-life care is inequitable, but previous research on this area has focused on perspectives of health professionals in specific settings or children with specific conditions. This qualitative…
Background and Aim: The birth prevalence of children with congenital heart disease is about one percent a year. This might mean that a palliative diagnosis maybe directly exists from birth due to the complexity of the congenital heart disease. The…
As medical students and residents, we have all grappled with patient death and dying at some point in our training. These experiences often remain with us, informing our clinical practice, our personal wellbeing, and the ways in which we build…
Background Children with life-threatening conditions frequently experience high intensity care at the end of life, though most of this research only focused on children with cancer. Some research suggests inequities in care provided based on age,…
OBJECTIVES: Palliative sedation (PS) consists of the use of drugs to alleviate the suffering of patients with refractory symptoms, through a reduction in consciousness. The aim of this study is to describe the incidence of and indications for PS in…
Following an unexpected pediatric death, survivors undergo unique trauma. Medical examiners (MEs) evaluate most of these deaths. We evaluated the bereavement support available to survivors in the Chicagoland area following a pediatric death. We had…
The primary moral commitment of medical care has traditionally been based on a belief in the intrinsic value and significance of human life and a desire to protect the most vulnerable from harm. In this respect, the care of newborn infants who are at…
Abstract This study aims to evaluate the appropriateness of end-of-life care for children with genetic and congenital conditions. This is a decedent cohort study. We used 6 linked, Belgian, routinely collected, population-level databases containing…
Coping with the death of a newborn infant requires training and reflection regarding the end-of-life decision-making process, communication with the family, and the care to be provided. The objective of this article is to analyze in depth the salient…
BACKGROUND: A terminally ill child should have the possibility to be at home with their family during the end of life. Provision of care from primary care nurses (PCNs) is crucial, but no model exists on how specialised paediatric palliative 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. OBJECTIVE(S): This…
Background Adolescents with long term conditions are recognised to have unique needs and to experience particular health risks as they transfer to adult services. Some young people with complex neuro-disability may live years following transfer to…
Objectives Pediatric palliative care (PPC), especially among noncancer pediatric patients, faces challenges including late referral, limited patient care, and insufficient data for Asian patients. Methods This retrospective cohort study used the…
Background: Research has shown that many babies who die in neonatal units could have been potential tissue and/or organ donors. Despite the existence of guidelines supporting its implementation, the incidence of neonatal donation remains rare in the…
Understanding and respecting the spiritual beliefs, ethnic roots, cultural norms and customs of individual families is essential for neonatologists to provide clinically appropriate and humane end-of-life care. This review describes the…
OBJECTIVE: Most deaths in Pediatric Intensive Care Units involve forgoing life-sustaining treatment. Such deaths required carefully planned end-of-life care built on compassion and focused on palliative care measures. This study aims to assess topics…
While the underlying principles are the same, there are differences in practice in end of life decisions and care for extremely preterm infants compared with other newborns and older children. In this paper, we review end of life care for extremely…
Instrumental variable analysis (IVA) has been widely used in many fields, including health care, to determine the comparative effectiveness of a treatment, intervention, or policy. However, its application in pediatric end-of-life care research has…
Pediatric Critical Care Medicine has evolved drastically as a specialty since its inception more than five decades ago.1 Advances in technology and medical interventions have led to a substantial reduction in mortality rates, which are now in the…
Introduction: Pediatric hematopoietic cell transplant (HCT) confers a high risk of morbidity and mortality and palliative care (PC) integration in HCT may improve outcomes. PC services can aid in advanced care planning, symptom management, and…
Introduction: Paediatric palliative care aims to improve the quality of life of both the patients and their families when facing life-threatening illnesses. However, regions with strong religious and cultural practices made caring for ill children…
BACKGROUND: Neonatal death is often preceded by end-of-life medical decisions. This study aimed to determine whether the context of death - after a decision of withholding or withdrawing life-sustaining treatment (WWLST) or despite maximum care - was…
We are entering a new era of integration between neonatal medicine and paediatric palliative care, with increasing recognition that the role and skills of palliative care extend beyond care of only the terminally ill infant. This paper addresses the…
Aims: This feasibility study aimed to systematically identify and address the support needs of parents of children with life-limiting illnesses and to assess whether the systematic approach was acceptable and relevant to parents. Method(s): The CSNAT…
Palliative care has been defined as 'the active holistic care of individuals across all ages with serious health-related suffering due to severe illness, and especially of those near the end of life'. Unfortunately, palliative care and especially…
OBJECTIVES: Pediatric palliative care services improve the quality of life for children with life-limiting and life-threatening diseases, although little has been published about variation based on cultural and religious factors. This article sets…
Abstract Context: Palliative sedation practices evolved in France when the Claeys-Leonetti law passed in 2016 authorized patient-requested continuous deep sedation (CDS) until death. Its implementation in the pediatric setting is less frequently…
Abstract Objective: The objective of this study was to measure the appropriateness of end-of-life care for children who died with neurologic conditions. Study design: Based on linked routinely collected databases, we conducted a population-level…
Abstract Each year, more than 8 million children worldwide require specialized palliative care, yet there is little evidence available in pediatrics on the characteristics of the end of life in this context. Our aim is to analyze the characteristics…
Abstract Objectives: To characterize delivery of goal-concordant end-of-life (EOL) care among children with complex chronic conditions and to determine factors associated with goal-concordance. Study design: This was a retrospective review of goals…
Abstract The French national centre of palliative and end-of-life care (Centre national des soins palliatifs et de la fin de vie) offers each year an updated selection of nearly 200 children's books for helping adults who accompany children who are…
Background: Pediatric patients often undergo surgery during terminal admissions. However, the involvement and timing of palliative care consults in caring for these patients has not been readily described. Objective: To describe the presence and…
Significant disparities continue to exist in access to inpatient pediatric hospice care among children at the end-of-life. Increasingly more children at this stage are dying in the hospital or at home on hospice which is not always an acceptable…
Pediatric palliative care (PPC) provides an extra layer of support for families caring for a child with complex heart disease as these patients often experience lifelong morbidities with frequent hospitalizations and risk of early mortality. PPC…
