Who Died Of Cancer Between 1990-1997 Experienced Substantial

Pediatric palliative care is both philosophy and an organized process to help care for children with life threatening conditions. Treating pain and difficult symptoms with psychosocial and spiritual care. The people involved in the treatment care is the family members, and a transdisciplinary team.

It is my recommendation that the health care community implement a network of resources for parents who are not willing to accept and grieve but are willing to accept and fight to prolong the life of their child. Resources and information should be readily available to assist with any type of services that would bring relief for situations ranging from housing to therapy. Medical professionals also should be required to take a course in patient relations giving some insight into the emotional turmoil that many parents experience. This probably would change some parent’s perception of the medical profession because discretion and empathy would be used when providing information about the child’s condition. Any feelings of hopelessness may be eliminated and replaced with feelings of relief

Unfortunately, 25-75% of patients will lose their capacity to make medical decisions at the EOL (Sudore et al., 2014). Therefore, family are involved to support the patient on their EOL journey by assisting them with medical decision making that is reflective of their wishes (Sudore, 2014). Therefore, as family involvement increases, patient advocacy improves (Sudore, 2014). Family involvement was unitedly defined as a family or friend caregiver who was most involved in the patient’s care. Caregiving tasks were direct, such as personal care and meals, or indirect, such as management and monitoring, and was provided on weekly to monthly basis (Williams et al., 2012). In the last month of life, 63% to 94.2% of decedents had family involvement with 87.5% of families being satisfied with the overall care they received (Sudore et al., 2014; Williams et al., 2012; Thompson et al., 2012). According to Williams et al. (2012), the indirect task of monitoring, such as advocating for medical care, diet and medication, had the highest involvement rate of

The authors MacKinnon, Smith, Henry, Milman, Berish, Farrace, Korner, Chochinov, and Cohen (2016) revealed a receipt of the several financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of the article. The Canadian institute of Health Research (CIHR) studentship to the main author: the CIHR/Canadian Cancer Society Stratiegic Training Program in Palliative Care Research and the Family Caregiving at End of Life New Emerging Team (Mackinnon, Smith, Henry, Milman, Berish, Farrace, Cohen, 2016).

Children’s hospice care is a form of a palliative care which is provided to children who are expected to live six months or less (). They relieve pain and other symptoms that cause discomfort so that each day can be lived to the full. The families feel being supported emotional, social, practical, psychological and spiritual by the staff. The staff supported families during their difficult time and during the days when there are no longer with their loved ones. They were not alone all the time when they need anything a member of multi -professional team will be there for them for example supporting them with funeral expenses, social fund and ensuring that brothers and sisters are being supported on their grieving moments. A grief specialist

Childhood cancer takes a tremendous toll on a family in general. It can be absolutely catastrophic without knowledge of the various strategies and coping tools successfully used by other families with histories of childhood cancer. Every year over 3,500 children are diagnosed with cancer (Yoak, 38). The news is devastating to a family. They are faced with a life altering event and the difficult task of helping the child understand what is happening to their bodies. No doubt the doctors and hospital staff will be able to facilitate most of the explanations of the diagnosis and treatment plan. However, I would like to enlighten the readers of this paper about the coping mechanisms utilized by many families to help them to survive this illness.

A 6-year-old girl was diagnosed with stage IV anaplastic Wilms’ tumor and had to undergo experimental chemotherapy, with less than a 5 percent chance of curing the deadly disease. Sadly, the personal account of this young child is highlighted in “Tell the Children” in the Journal of Clinical Oncology—written by Joanne Hilden, Jan Watterson, and Jody Chrastek, all from a hospital’s department of Hematology/Oncology. Not only does this young girl have to fight a relentless cancer, but she has to also go through this battle without understanding what she is dealing with. Hilden, Watterson, and Chrastek states that the parents were offered help in explaining to their daughter and her sister what may possibly happen: hospice (3193). Unfortunately, the parents’ response was, “We do not want the children told about this. Children should not have to deal with death. They should be free from that for as long as possible. We will answer what they ask, but we will not tell them what is happening or that our daughter is dying, and we do not want you to tell them, either” (3193). As a result of non-existent communication between the parent and the child, the young patient experienced a great deal of suffering and confusion. The parents declared that their child was comfortable; although, as time went on the child actually admitted to staff that she was, indeed, in pain (3193).

However, most researches are not oblivious to the late effects of treatments given, such as chemotherapy and radiation. According to Wenninger, the aftermath of childhood cancer causes “chronic medical conditions and impairments in level of functioning and psychosocial outcomes” (Wenninger, 2013, p. 854).

One of the issues in the health sector is pediatric palliative care. Pediatric palliative care has gained more recognition, opportunities and availability in the past few years. It is a model of care that focuses on both patients with life-limiting diseases and their family members. In pediatric palliative care, the model of care lays more emphasis on children having life-limiting diseases and their family members. In pediatrics, family members of the child are also affected. Pediatric palliative care focuses on ensuring that the quality of life of the sick child and the family improves. It achieves this by ensuring that they are provided with appropriate relief from symptoms, stress and pains caused by the illness.

The analysis of data proved the hypothesis in that children with these two types of very serious childhood cancers are very costly to the families. The results also showed that length of stay, and higher overall cost was noted with the children who died. The research does not identify if these children had additional life saving interventions or if they were specifically involved with hospice or palliative care. The research also identified differences with admission into the PICU; a patient with leukemia admitted to the PICU indicated a seriously sick child. But an admission into the PICU for a child with a CNS tumor typically indicated an operable

Palliative Care for Children: Enhancing the Quality of Life for a Child with a Life-Threatening Illness

I have always believed that health cannot be optimized through the treatment of disease only. Rather, health should be addressed on a biological, physical, psychological, social, and spiritual continuum. Palliative care addresses an often-overlooked aspect of the patient experience, which is symptom management of their chronic illnesses. Health care professionals tend to treat acute episodes of

Describes the Pediatric palliative nursing as stressful and rewarding. The author claims that it requires coping skills, confidence, and other attributes for successful patient care and nursing practice. Through a thorough literature review, clinical workshops, direct observation in pediatric palliative care settings, and personal nursing experience in the neonatal intensive care, pediatric care, and oncology wards, this author confirmed the necessity for studies to clarify the needs of dying pediatric patients and their families, as well as the needs of nurses who provides their care. This article briefly reviews the history and current status of pediatric palliative care, describes the experiences of nurses caring for dying children, exposes

2. Carr, D. B., Fischer, D. S. & Markman, M. (1994). Cancer: when to focus on palliation. Patient Care, 28, (3), 123–126.

An important concept dealing with this moral burden affecting the parents’ decision-making is confronting the reality of the diagnosis. An overwhelming sense of helplessness affects parents when their child is diagnosed with cancer. Parents reported being initially shocked, scared, frightened, in despair, upset, and overwhelmed (Stewart, Pyke-Grimm, & Kelly, 2012). They question whether their child’s illness is because of genetic heritage or an unhealthy lifestyle. Furthermore, they