Initiating Palliative Care Referrals in Pediatric Oncology

Title

Initiating Palliative Care Referrals in Pediatric Oncology

Creator

Cuviello A; Raisanen J C; Donohue P K; Wiener L; Boss R D

Publisher

Journal of Pain and Symptom Management

Date

2020

Subject

palliative care; quality of life; symptom management; pediatric oncology; screening tool; trigger

Description

CONTEXT: Early palliative care (PC) has been shown to improve the quality of life of children with cancer, yet referral practices by pediatric oncology providers remains inconsistent and few patients receive a formal PC consult. OBJECTIVE(S): We sought to describe patient characteristics used by oncologists for PC referral and identify ways to improve PC integration into the care for children with cancer. METHOD(S): This mixed-methods study used semi-structured audiotaped interviews to explore the patient or disease characteristics used by pediatric oncology providers to trigger PC referral. Conventional content analysis was applied to interview transcripts. RESULT(S): 77 participants with diverse experience were interviewed. Over 75% of participants reported that PC was consulted "too late" and cited communication and systems issues as the top barriers. A majority of participants (85%) stated that a screening tool would be helpful to standardize referral practices to PC. Characteristics such as poor prognosis (88%), symptom management (86%), comorbidities (65%), and psychosocial needs (65%) were commonly reported triggers that should initiate PC consultation. However, when presented with case scenarios that included these characteristics, participants did not consistently identify the PC triggers. Nearly 50% of participants stated they had received some formalized PC training, however only one third of these participants noted completing a PC rotation. CONCLUSION(S): Our findings suggest that pediatric oncologists are committed to improving the integration of PC for their patients and that standardization of referral practices, through the use of a screening tool, would be of benefit. Additional PC education might reinforce pediatric oncologists' recognition of palliative care triggers. Copyright © 2020. Published by Elsevier Inc.

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).

Citation List Month

Oncology 2020 List

Collection

Citation

Cuviello A; Raisanen J C; Donohue P K; Wiener L; Boss R D, “Initiating Palliative Care Referrals in Pediatric Oncology,” Pediatric Palliative Care Library, accessed March 19, 2024, https://pedpalascnetlibrary.omeka.net/items/show/17363.