Preview

Pediatric Palliative Care

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
2936 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Pediatric Palliative Care
Implementation of Pediatric Palliative Care
Jeanene “Nikki” Bowen
Georgetown University School of Nursing and Health Studies
NURO540

Implementation of Pediatric Palliative Care
Hundreds of thousands of children are diagnosed each year with complex life-limiting illnesses in the United States. End of life decisions in children with life-threatening or life-limiting conditions are a major challenge in the pediatric population. It is unnatural for a parent to have to make end-of-life decisions for a child. Pediatric palliative care (PPC) is a relatively new specialty in the medical field (Bergstraesser, 2013). Pediatric palliative care is supportive care provided to children with life-limiting illnesses and their families. PPC aims to improve their remaining quality of life by alleviating emotional, physical, spiritual and social stressors that come from life-limiting conditions (Knapp C. , et al., 2012). The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), World Health Organization (WHO), and the Institute of Medicine (IOM) have recommended early implementation of pediatric palliative care programs to assist with continuous medical management at time of initial diagnosis carrying through to the end of life. Palliative care serves to provide resources in making difficult decisions and improving the remaining quality of life. This paper evaluates the importance of initiating a palliative care consult at time of diagnosis versus when death is impending and the improvement in the quality of life that is achieved.
PICOT Question In the pediatric population, does the implementation of pediatric palliative care services at time of diagnosis in children with complex illnesses, improve the quality of life compared to those not receiving such support?

Population
The pediatric population includes all children aged newborn to 18 years old. Pediatric palliative care services focus on children with complex, life limiting conditions. In the realm of
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Unit 8 Assignment
    • 342 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Unit 8 Assignment

    Palliative care is aimed at reducing pain and suffering as a person nears the end of his or her life…

    • 342 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Being Mortal By Atul Gawande Character Analysis
    • 1074 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Being Mortal By Atul Gawande Character Analysis

    1). In order for healthcare to truly advance and provide patient-centered care, it is necessary that our clinicians start to have end-of-life discussions with patients and be willing to provide care aimed at improving quality of life. It should all start with education about death and dying and continue with methods to further improve knowledge on options such as palliative care and the importance of discussing the patient’s…

    • 1074 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Ethical Issues In Palliative Care
    • 183 Words
    • 1 Page

    Ethical Issues In Palliative Care

    The team should be knowledgeable to give proactive care, understand the patient's preferences and forgive conflicts. The process of truth telling in advanced cancer or any other terminal illness can be a difficult task. Whenever a patient is too moribund and not in a suitable mental stage, the family carers are required to give informed consent. The doctor and nurse in the palliative care team have to build the communication with a responsible family carer so that confidentiality and dignity for patient's last stage are maintained.[1,2] Communication is meant to deal with ethical questions regarding two fundamental aspects of Palliative Care: To explain the concept of a good death and to resolve the conflicting needs of patient vis-à-vis family.[8]…

    • 183 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Underutilization of Hospice and Palliative Care
    • 293 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Underutilization of Hospice and Palliative Care

    Rather than seeking a cure as with traditional western medical practices, hospice and palliative care puts an emphasis on the quality of life by concentrating on symptom, pain, and stress reduction to alleviate patient suffering through the use of a multidisciplinary approach. This medical approach to patient care is deemed appropriate for patients with acute and chronic diseases, as well as for patients at the end of their life. While the palliative care treatment methodology seeks to relieve symptoms without providing a curative effect on the underlying disease or cause, hospice care addresses only those who are considered terminal, that is, with a life expectancy of less than six months. With respect to advanced disease progression, concerns pertaining to physical, emotional, spiritual, and social issues are addressed with regard to the patient and their loved ones.…

    • 293 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Cohesive Response To Fetal Demise
    • 288 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Cohesive Response To Fetal Demise

    The death of a child can be devastating and it is essential for the parents to receive support from the medical staff while at the…

    • 288 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Cleft Lip And Palate
    • 1786 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Cleft Lip And Palate

    When parents are faced with serious decisions regarding their child’s medical care from different medical professionals, they can often feel overwhelmed. As a child with CL/P gets older, he or she will become more aware of the physical and emotional challenges associated with living with a…

    • 1786 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Palliative Care for Children
    • 1305 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Palliative Care for Children

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

    • 1305 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Physician Assisted Suicide Research Paper
    • 3211 Words
    • 13 Pages

    Physician Assisted Suicide Research Paper

    98). Palliative care would use a team approach, to help the patient and family cope during the patient’s illness and provide grief counseling if necessary (Masterstvedt et al. 98). Palliative care should also enhance the quality of life to the patient, and potentially improve the course of the illness. If the palliative care is applied appropriately early in the course of the illness and used with other therapies, it should be used with the intention of prolonging life (Masterstvedt et al. 98). So instead of the pressure of a law, and potential influences of family members eeking an inheritance, the World Health Organization defines a new strategy that would instead work to improve quality of life, instead of ending a poor quality of…

    • 3211 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Benefits Of Palliative Nursing
    • 571 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Benefits Of Palliative Nursing

    Palliative nursing is specialized care given to people with serious illnesses so as to improve their quality of life. It requires special kinds of nurses and doctors like the state tested nursing aides and the certified nursing aides. In order for a nurse to provide special care, one has to have special biomedical knowledge, be kind, patient and patient because the sight of dying elderly men and women is heartbreaking. It is also very testing because an aide might bond with a patient only for him or her to die, and it gets hard to adapt to seeing people they cared for dying so often. Improvement in quality of life for patients is the key mission of the palliative care which should be the driving force for all nurses (Hanson, Henderson, & Menon,…

    • 571 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    End Of Life Care
    • 998 Words
    • 4 Pages

    End Of Life Care

    In today’s healthcare, it is becoming increasingly important to have an understanding of end-of-life care as a nurse because of the many components and processes to design the realm of care. Specifically, it is a nurse’s ultimate responsibility to have continuous discussions with patients and their family members regarding their continuation of care while respecting and considering race, culture, and their basic understanding of the care they are receiving. This will ultimately aid in how patients come to the conclusion of their decisions. “The decisions…

    • 998 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    End of Life Care
    • 3543 Words
    • 15 Pages

    End of Life Care

    Robinson, L., Segal, J. (2012) Hospice & Palliative Care. Quality of Life at the End of Life. Retrieved on November 2, 2012 from http://www.helpguide.org/elder/hospice_care.htm.…

    • 3543 Words
    • 15 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Persuasive Essay On Assisted Suicide
    • 727 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Persuasive Essay On Assisted Suicide

    The issue of ending oneselves or a loved one’s life is a difficult action to process if a person is not directly affected by a situation involving a decision as such. Parents around the world who have children in vegetative states are pushed with the difficult decision, if available where they live, to permit a medical professional to end their child’s life whether with assisted suicide or simply pulling the life support. Assisted Suicide is a practice where the termination of one’s life using lethal injections because of suffrage from an incurable disease. Pulling life support means that the patient not longer receives vital nutrients needed to survive because they are unable to tend to themselves. Parents should not be burdened by people, who have never gone through such a difficult ordeal, telling them that it is not okay to take their own child’s life. Parents want the best for their child and if their child is in a vegetative state they may decide that their child has no quality of life.…

    • 727 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Physician Assisted Suicide Legalized
    • 4278 Words
    • 18 Pages

    Physician Assisted Suicide Legalized

    Supporters believe true compassion is shown by caring for the terminally ill and helping them alleviate their pain through palliative care which is underutilized and it does not always go hand in hand with standard medical care. The American Board of Medical Specialties did not identify palliative care as a distinct specialty until 2006 ("Palliative Care"). Also, “advances in palliative medicine have produced effective strategies for managing and relieving pain for most terminally ill patients, including the possibility of palliative sedation” (Prokopetz and Lehman 97). A study conducted at the Massachusetts General Hospital between 2006 and 2009 demonstrated that terminally ill patients who received palliative care lived an average of 2.7 months longer. They also “reported a better quality of life and less depression than the patients who received standard care”, which did not include non-palliative care ("Palliative Care").…

    • 4278 Words
    • 18 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Essay On End Of Life Care
    • 1047 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Essay On End Of Life Care

    End of life care is one of the most taboo topics in American society as it requires those involved to acknowledge that their lives will eventually come to an end. Planning for such an outcome can be difficult but ultimately it is necessary in order to save others from dealing with the burden of end of life care while unprepared. As a nurse it is especially important to have a firm grasp of the many different factors that weigh in decisions related to end of life care and be ready to assist both the patient and his or her family in any way needed when that time may come. A careful examination of the resources available in a community to assist with this care, the gaps in care prevalent in American society today, the cultural…

    • 1047 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Cancer In Children Research Paper
    • 404 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Cancer In Children Research Paper

    There are lots of children being diagnosed with cancer everyday and the ratio of patients has always been on the rise. The only positive thing about cancer is treatment facilities and treatment methods. Over past few decades, treatment methods have been evolved a lot and people have become more aware of cancer symptoms and treatment. Cancer was tagged more as an adult's disease but these days children are the victims of this deadly disease. It is very important that parents should be fully aware of the symptoms, complications and treatment methods of cancer because any child can get this disease. The good new about cancer in children is that it is diagnosed very early. Early diagnosis makes it possible to cure and ultimately survival rate of…

    • 404 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More

Related Topics