ABSTRACT
Pediatric palliative care and hospice medicine is a field in which a multidisciplinary team assists in the management and treatment of infants, children, and young adults with a serious condition. A therapeutic relationship is created among the team, patients, and their caregivers to address total pain. This encompasses exploration of physical pain, social, spiritual, and emotional pain. Patient-centered and family-centered shared decision-making is paramount when setting and revisiting goals of care with patients and their families. Consider a checklist when faced with a dying patient so that the family and team feel supported.
Subject(s)
Family/psychology , Palliative Care/methods , Palliative Care/psychology , Age Factors , Anorexia/therapy , Child , Child, Preschool , Decision Making , Delirium/therapy , Emotions , Grief , Humans , Infant , Infant, Newborn , Interpersonal Relations , Pain Management/methods , Patient Care Planning , Quality of Life , Spirituality , Terminal Care/methods , Terminal Care/psychologyABSTRACT
Progress in pediatric palliative care has gained momentum, but there remain significant barriers to the appropriate provision of palliative care to ill and dying children, including the lack of properly trained health care professionals, resources to finance such care, and scientific research, as well as a continued cultural denial of death in children. This article reviews the epidemiology of pediatric palliative care, special communication concerns, decision making, ethical and legal considerations, symptom assessment and management, psychosocial issues, provision of care across settings, end-of-life care, and bereavement. Educational and supportive resources for health care practitioners and families, respectively, are included.