BACKGROUND: Nationally, only one-third of children survive to hospital discharge after initial presentation with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). Of those children who survive, less than 25% leave the hospital at their functional baseline.…
AIM: Medical providers may face unique emotional challenges when confronted with the suffering of chronically ill, dying, and bereaved children. This study assessed the preliminary outcomes of participation in a group-based multimodal mindfulness…
This was a prospective descriptive study of hospice physician home visits (HVs) conducted by Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellows. Our objectives were 1) to improve our knowledge of hospice care at home by describing physician HVs 2) to identify…
INTRODUCTION: Home Patient-Controlled Analgesia (PCA) is an effective and often preferred therapy for the treatment of chronic pain symptoms in the pediatric palliative care patient. There is little previous research of patient experience with Home…
Adolescents have unique physical and psychosocial needs. Adolescents want to gain autonomy, yet they must still rely on their parents for support. These unique needs are further complicated by a life-threatening illness. Adolescents with…
Canuck Place Children's Hospice, a family-centered pediatric hospice in Vancouver, Canada, provides family support and respite, pain and symptom management, and end-of-life care. One of the goals of pediatric hospice palliative care is to create an…
IntroductionPediatric critical care and oncology providers care for patients who have life-threatening or serious illness, yet they receive little palliative care education.ObjectiveCompare oncology and critical care providers' attitudes regarding…
OBJECTIVE: Neonatal nurses face numerous barriers in providing end-of-life (EOL) care for neonates and their families. Addressing neonatal nurses' attitudes could provide insight into barriers that impede neonatal palliative care (NPC). This study…
Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States, with most of these deaths taking place in the hospital setting. Discussions on end-of-life care and on cardiopulmonary resuscitation in particular are an important component in the…
BACKGROUND: Children with intellectual disability commonly lack access to pediatric hospice care services. Residential care may be a critical component in providing access to hospice care for children with intellectual disability.…
Although clinicians have described the value of support groups in assisting children mourn the death of someone close, little is known about helping children with bereavement. By understanding what helps children mourn, nurses can better facilitate a…
BACKGROUND: Education and training are very critical to development of high-quality neonatal palliative care. However, little investigation has been done into Taiwanese neonatal clinicians' educational needs regarding neonatal palliative care.…
Compassion fatigue (CF) is recognizable. It erodes the professional's ability to function at an optimum level. Depression, caregiver stress, secondary trauma, and post traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD) are very much a part of the daily landscape for…
BACKGROUND: Caring for a child near the end of life (EOL) can be a stressful experience. Resident physicians are often the frontline providers responsible for managing symptoms, communicating difficult information, and pronouncing death, yet they…
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…
Although most children with intellectual and developmental disabilities reside in the community, a subset of children with severe intellectual disability and complex medical needs reside in pediatric skilled nursing facilities. These children have…
Many terminally ill patients who are able to eat appear to be eating less than they should, losing weight, and becoming malnourished, and many others develop difficulties with eating. These symptoms and signs are usually a marker of advanced cancer,…
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…
The geographic interface between the need for and the supply of pediatric hospice may be critical in whether children with cancer access care. This study sought to describe the geographic distribution of pediatric hospice need and supply and identify…
The objectives of this study were to examine (1) the extent to which hospice palliative care volunteers are involved in program and patient/family advocacy, (2) volunteers' willingness to engage in program and patient/family advocacy, and (3)…
Defining financial parameters of palliative care (PC) is important for providing sustainable programming. In our study, we evaluated hospital length of stay (LOS) and charges for the first 164 inpatient PC consultations performed by the Advanced…
BACKGROUND: Education and training for interdisciplinary pediatric providers requires training in principles of palliative and end-of-life (EOL) care. The experiences of bereaved parents can inform and enhance palliative care educational curricula in…
In this report, we describe nine terminally ill patients with metastatic cancer who were treated with an intravenous infusion consisting of ketamine (2 mg/ml)/fentanyl (5 micrograms/ml)/midazolam (0.1 mg/ml) (K/F/M) to control pain after traditional…
Palliative care for infants, children, and adolescents encompasses numerous transitions and thresholds of uncertainty that challenge conventional clinical medicine. Palliative care clinicians have opportunities to be more comfortable amid such…
BACKGROUND: The goal of adequate pain control becomes increasingly salient for children with cancer and their families as the patients approach the end of life. Methadone is one option that is particularly desirable in end-of-life care given its long…
Internal data from the sole pediatric hospice in British Columbia were utilized to investigate mortality trends among children dying from life-threatening conditions. Characteristics of the sample (hospice) were compared to that of the population…
Internal data from the sole pediatric hospice in British Columbia were utilized to investigate mortality trends among children dying from life-threatening conditions. Characteristics of the sample (hospice) were compared to that of the population…
CONTEXT: There are many patients with terminal illness for whom hospice care would be appropriate, but they either never enroll or enroll very late. In a pre-hospice program designed to help patients make the transition into hospice, we observed that…
OBJECTIVE: To determine pediatric nurses' perceptions of intensity, frequency occurrence, and magnitude score of selected barriers in providing pediatric end-of-life (EOL) care. METHOD: A translated modified version of National Survey of critical…
CONTEXT: Approximately 1 in 10 infants require neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) hospitalization, which causes parental stress. Palliative care (PC) provides an opportunity to alleviate suffering and stress. OBJECTIVES: This study examines the…
Purpose:To describe the suggested clinical practice of palliative sedation as it is presented in the literature and discuss available guidelines for its use. METHODS: CINAHL, PubMed, and Web of Science were searched for publications since 1997 for…
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…
OBJECTIVE: To present our center's experience with terminal extubation in 3 palliative critical care home transports from the Pediatric Cardiac Intensive Unit. DESIGN: All cases were identified from our Cardiovascular intensive care unit ( CVICU).…
BACKGROUND:: One widely accepted approach to identify children with life-limiting health problems is the complex chronic conditions (CCCs) classification system. Although considered the "gold standard" for classifying children with serious illness,…
With the emergence of a more formalized field of pediatric palliative care (PPC), it is important for individuals and organizations involved in PPC to gather input from patients with life-threatening/life-limiting conditions, their families, and…
Good communication is essential but sometimes challenging in pediatric palliative care. We describe 3 cases whereby miniature chairs made of various materials and colors were used successfully to encourage communication among pediatric patients,…
Objectives To examine the relationship between pediatric primary care involvement and hospice and home health care use at end of life. Methods California Medicaid data were used to estimate the relationship between pediatric primary care involvement…
OBJECTIVE: To describe how preferences and treatment influence symptoms at end of life and site of death in pediatric cancer. METHODS: We included 61 pediatric palliative patients with cancer whose parents previously participated in a study that…
Phenomenologic analysis of initial consults provided during the first year of a new Pediatric Advanced Care Team (PACT) program provides essential understanding of the experience and inform program direction and future clinical research. Parents…
