Closing the Gap: Foster Parents' Lived Experiences and Recommendations for Interdisciplinary Health-Care Providers.

Purpose: This study explored barriers and facilitators to utilizing health-care services for foster youth, from the perspective of foster parents. Background: There are nearly 437,283 youths in the United States foster care system. Youths living in locations that are different from their familial home situations have a significantly higher occurrence of physical and mental health illnesses than children who remain in their familial homes, increasing risk for homelessness, substance use and abuse, chronic long-term illnesses, and incarceration, thus placing additional burden on the health-care system. Design and Methods: This study utilized a qualitative descriptive design with purposive sampling, with video focus groups to explore 15 foster parents' experiences in accessing health-care services for foster youth. Results: Barriers and facilitators to accessing health care and care coordination were identified, including logistics, transportation, electronic health record access, location of health care, and the impact of the social worker. Practice Implications: Nurses are well-positioned to aid in closing gaps in care for foster youth. Conclusions: These experiences provide important insights and implications for health-care providers and for future research and policy development.

Pediatric Goals of Care Communication: A Socioecological Model to Guide Conversations.

The purpose of this article is to explore factors that influence pediatric patients and their parents during provider-led goals-of-care conversations. Our framework can help providers enhance holistic communication by approaching difficult topics (ie, quality of life, end of life) with an understanding of the multilayered external influences that affect patient/parent decision making. A 5-layer model is presented that describes facilitators to conversations about quality goals of care and advance directives. Each year, complex health conditions (a) affect approximately 500 000 children in the United States, 8600 of whom meet current palliative care criteria, and (b) account for over 7 million child deaths globally. Nurses can use knowledge of the unique values and culture of families with children who have complex health conditions to support them by providing high quality, ongoing goals-of-care conversations, especially if their access to pediatric palliative care is limited.

Role-play simulation to teach nursing students how to provide culturally sensitive care to transgender patients.

OBJECTIVE: Increase student knowledge and comfort with caring for a transgender individual and confronting colleagues when exhibiting poor cultural intelligence. BACKGROUND: Transgender patients often experience health care inequities, including heteronormative microaggressions in communication and policies. Simulation has been a successful means of providing students with the education, tools, and experience necessary to combat systemic injustice in health care. Simulation is an interactive pedagogy that allows nursing students to practice assessment, patient care, and difficult conversations in a controlled, risk-free environment. DESIGN/ METHODS: Prelicensure nursing students role-played a simulation created as an interactive learning strategy to promote culturally sensitive assessment of a transgender patient and their caregiver, including assessing for pronouns and providing patient-centered care. The simulation included preforming a difficult conversation between nurses to cultivate an environment of being an upstander. The simulation demonstrated holistic methods of assessing and supporting unique patient needs for the patient who is transgender. RESULTS: Nursing students reported they felt that their comfort with advocacy and ability to communicate with transgender patients, as well as with their families, and health care team members was enhanced after completing the simulation. CONCLUSION: Simulation has the ability to reduce discomfort and discrimination in health care for transgender patients by equipping students with culturally sensitive and inclusive communication tools and providing them with risk-free environment where they can learn to provide care for this vulnerable population in preparation for successful future encounters.

Communication and Cultural Sensitivity for Families and Children With Life-Limiting Diseases: An Informed Decision-Making Ethical Case in Community-Based Palliative Care.

The health care decisions of families of children who have life-limiting genetic diseases are impacted by multiple factors including religious and ethical values, education and knowledge, emotional trauma, availability of support, and accessibility of care. Palliative care nurses must practice the highest standards by delivering nonbiased, nonjudgmental support to patients and families; however, nurses may experience moral distress if their personal values conflict with a family's decisions and needs. This case focuses on a family receiving community-based palliative care for a child with a genetic life-limiting disease. They had a family history of this disease, which had caused the deaths of previous children, and the mother had a current unplanned pregnancy. The care team overcame language barriers and cultural obstacles to establish a trusting relationship with the vulnerable pregnant mother. They were able to support her decision to terminate her pregnancy safely by helping her to navigate a complex health care system. Using 5 crucial pillars to assist health care members with the delivery of nonjudgmental family-centered palliative care is recommended: (1) identification of biases, (2) utilization of a culturally safe approach, (3) effective communication, (4) assessment and support, and (5) knowledge of community resources.