Evaluating a Pediatric Palliative Care Elective Rotation Through Prompted Reflective Writing and Aligning With Competencies.

Hospice and palliative medicine is important in the education of pediatric residents. Little is known about if and how residents' learnings during a pediatric palliative care elective fulfill core competencies and Pediatrics subcompetencies as set forth by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) and published subspecialty competencies for residents in pediatric hospice and palliative medicine (pHPM). To evaluate what residents are learning on a four-week pediatric palliative care elective rotation at a single institution and how these learnings fulfill ACGME and pHPM competencies.

Discrimination 911: A Novel Response Framework to Teach Bystanders to Become Upstanders When Facing Microaggressions.

Problem: Microaggressions are pervasive in daily life, including in undergraduate and graduate medical education and across health care settings. The authors created a response framework (i.e.

A Week in the Life: Pediatric Palliative Care through the Eyes of a Medical Student.

To complete the curriculum, learners rotating through a pediatric palliative care service are asked to submit a piece of reflective writing. Here, we share an edited version of the narrative one student submitted, accompanied by a brief consideration of the numerous benefits of reflective writing for medical trainees (including improved communication and professionalism skills, as well as increased levels of empathy and comfort when facing complex or difficult situations). Additionally, we describe how brief personal narratives may serve to reduce common misconceptions and confusion by educating patients, families, and clinicians about the reality and the role of pediatric palliative care.

Dignity Therapy in Pediatrics: A Case Series.

To report our first case series of Dignity Therapy modified for a pediatric palliative care population. Dignity Therapy has been utilized successfully with terminally ill adult patients to help restore a sense of dignity and personhood as well as cope with existential distress near the end of life. To our knowledge, there are no published reports of this treatment modality in pediatric patients.

Pediatric palliative care in the community.

Early integration of pediatric palliative care (PPC) for children with life-threatening conditions and their families enhances the provision of holistic care, addressing psychological, social, spiritual, and physical concerns, without precluding treatment with the goal of cure. PPC involvement ideally extends throughout the illness trajectory to improve continuity of care for patients and families. Although current PPC models focus primarily on the hospital setting, community-based PPC (CBPPC) programs are increasingly integral to the coordination, continuity, and provision of quality care.

A 2-year-old with 4 weeks of daily fever.

A 2-year-old female presents for evaluation of 4 weeks of daily fevers. When the fevers began, she had mild upper respiratory tract symptoms, which quickly resolved. The fevers persisted, however, with a maximum of 40°C.