Decision-making experiences of health professionals in withdrawing treatment for children and young people: A qualitative study

Decision-making experiences of health professionals in withdrawing treatment for children and young people: A qualitative study

Abdin S; Heath G; Neilson S; Byron-Daniel J; Hooper N

Child: care, health and development.

2022

decision making; healthcare; pediatric; professionals; qualitative study; treatment; withdrawing treatment

OBJECTIVE: To explore factors that influence professionals in deciding whether to withdraw treatment from a child and how decision-making is managed amongst professionals as an individual and as a team. STUDY DESIGN: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of health professionals working at a UK Children's Hospital, with children with life-limiting illnesses whose treatment has been withdrawn. Data was transcribed verbatim, anonymised, and analysed using a thematic framework method. RESULT(S): A total of fifteen participants were interviewed. Five interrelated themes with associated subthemes were generated to help understand the experiences of health professionals in decision-making on withdrawing a child's treatment: 1) Understanding the Child's Best Interests (2) Multidisciplinary Approach (3) External Factors (4) Psychological Wellbeing (5) Recommendations to Support Shared Decision-making. CONCLUSION(S): A shared decision-making approach should be adopted to support professionals, children, and their families to make decisions collectively. Copyright This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

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).

March 2022 List