TY - JOUR
T1 - Educational priorities for providing end-of-life care
T2 - Parent perspectives
AU - Arora, Gitanjli
AU - Caliboso, Menchie
AU - Baird, Jennifer
AU - Rusch, Rachel
AU - Greenman, Jennifer
AU - Obregon, Daniela
AU - Serwint, Janet R.
N1 - Funding Information:
FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE: The authors have indicated they have no financial relationships relevant to this article to disclose. FUNDING: Funding from the Division of Comfort and Palliative Care was used to support this study. Nonfinancial support was also received through the Academic Pediatric Association Educational Scholars Program, through which the primary author conceptualized and further developed this project. The funder or sponsor did not participate in the work. POTENTIAL CONFLICT OF INTEREST: The authors have indicated they have no potential conflicts of interest to disclose.
Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2021 by the American Academy of Pediatrics.
PY - 2021/10/1
Y1 - 2021/10/1
N2 - OBJECTIVES: Partnership with parents is a tenet of pediatric medicine; however, initiatives to include parents in education and research have been limited. Through focus groups, we included parents at the beginning of curriculum development by asking them to identify the priorities, existing supports, and opportunities for improvement in their child's end-of-life (EOL) care. METHODS: English and Spanish-speaking bereaved parents whose child had been cared for by the palliative care team and had died >18 months before the study initiation were invited to participate. In-person focus groups and a follow-up phone call were used to elicit opinions and capture a diversity of viewpoints. Themes were identified and clustered through an iterative analytic process. RESULTS: Twenty-seven parents of 17 children participated, with the total sample size determined by thematic saturation. Four themes were identified as important to parents in their child's EOL care: (1) honoring the role of the parent, (2) having confidence in the care team, (3) receiving gestures of love and caring, and (4) navigating logistic challenges. CONCLUSIONS: We asked parents to be partners in guiding priorities for health care education and professional development to improve pediatric EOL care. In addition to strengthening skills in communication, confidence in the team, and compassion, parents in this study identified a need for hospital staff to anticipate financial and social stressors and provide supportive resources more readily. Additionally, parents described clinical and nonclinical staff as providing support, suggesting that a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary curriculum be developed to improve pediatric EOL care.
AB - OBJECTIVES: Partnership with parents is a tenet of pediatric medicine; however, initiatives to include parents in education and research have been limited. Through focus groups, we included parents at the beginning of curriculum development by asking them to identify the priorities, existing supports, and opportunities for improvement in their child's end-of-life (EOL) care. METHODS: English and Spanish-speaking bereaved parents whose child had been cared for by the palliative care team and had died >18 months before the study initiation were invited to participate. In-person focus groups and a follow-up phone call were used to elicit opinions and capture a diversity of viewpoints. Themes were identified and clustered through an iterative analytic process. RESULTS: Twenty-seven parents of 17 children participated, with the total sample size determined by thematic saturation. Four themes were identified as important to parents in their child's EOL care: (1) honoring the role of the parent, (2) having confidence in the care team, (3) receiving gestures of love and caring, and (4) navigating logistic challenges. CONCLUSIONS: We asked parents to be partners in guiding priorities for health care education and professional development to improve pediatric EOL care. In addition to strengthening skills in communication, confidence in the team, and compassion, parents in this study identified a need for hospital staff to anticipate financial and social stressors and provide supportive resources more readily. Additionally, parents described clinical and nonclinical staff as providing support, suggesting that a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary curriculum be developed to improve pediatric EOL care.
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U2 - 10.1542/peds.2021-051379
DO - 10.1542/peds.2021-051379
M3 - Review article
C2 - 34518315
AN - SCOPUS:85116599802
SN - 0031-4005
VL - 148
JO - Pediatrics
JF - Pediatrics
IS - 4
M1 - e2021051379
ER -