Caring for the child with cancer at the close of life: "there are people who make it, and I'm hoping I'm one of them"

Title

Caring for the child with cancer at the close of life: "there are people who make it, and I'm hoping I'm one of them"

Creator

Hurwitz CA; Duncan J; Wolfe J

Publisher

Jama

Date

2004

Subject

Child; Humans; Palliative Care; Terminal Care; Physician-Patient Relations; Family; Attitude to Death; Communication; Non-U.S. Gov't; Research Support; caregivers; Neoplasms/therapy

Description

Approximately 25% of children with cancer die of their disease. Early in the course of a patient's illness, it is often impossible to determine whether the disease will be cured with cancer-directed treatment. When potentially curative therapy is no longer an option, the patient, family, and oncology team face enormous medical, psychological, and spiritual challenges. Optimal palliative care requires willingness on the part of the physician and caregiver team to engage the patient and family in discussions of their hopes and fears and to provide solace and support for emotional and physical pain. Using the comments of a child in the terminal phase of acute leukemia, his mother, and his physician, we describe opportunities and important lessons often revealed only when families and their caregivers face the end of a child's life. A broad-minded assessment of the patient's and family's physical, emotional, and spiritual needs and clarification of realistic goals and hopes not only improves the clinical care that the patient receives but also contributes to the sense of satisfaction and meaning that the physician can gain from the experience of caring for children at the end of life.
2004

Rights

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).

Type

Journal Article

Citation List Month

Backlog

Citation

Hurwitz CA; Duncan J; Wolfe J, “Caring for the child with cancer at the close of life: "there are people who make it, and I'm hoping I'm one of them",” Pediatric Palliative Care Library, accessed March 29, 2024, https://pedpalascnetlibrary.omeka.net/items/show/13108.