Bereavement photography for children: program development and health care professionals' response.

Reports of in-hospital bereavement photography focus largely on stillborns and neonates. Empiric data regarding the implementation of bereavement photography in pediatrics beyond the neonatal period and the impact of such programs on healthcare professionals (HCPs) is lacking. The authors describe the implementation of a pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) bereavement photography program and use questionnaire data from HCPs to describe HCPs' reflections on the program and to identify program barriers.

The use of family conferences in the pediatric intensive care unit.

Background: Data about pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) family conferences (FCs) are needed to enhance our understanding of the role of FCs in patient care and build a foundation for future research on PICU communication and decision making.

Objective: The study's objective was to describe the use and content of PICU FCs.

Design: The study design was a prospective chart review comparing patients who had conferences with those who did not, and a sub-analysis of patients with chronic care conditions (CCCs).

End-of-life care decisions in the PICU: roles professionals play.

Objective: Describe the roles and respective responsibilities of PICU healthcare professionals in end-of-life care decisions faced by PICU parents.

Design: Retrospective qualitative study.

Setting: University-based tertiary care children's hospital.

Pediatric intensive care unit family conferences: one mode of communication for discussing end-of-life care decisions.

Objective: To examine clinicians' and parents' reflections on pediatric intensive care unit family conferences in the context of discussion about end-of-life care decision making.

Design: Retrospective qualitative study.

Setting: A university-based hospital.

Parental views on withdrawing life-sustaining therapies in critically ill children.

Objective: To broaden existing knowledge of pediatric end-of-life decision making by exploring factors described by parents of patients in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) as important/influential if they were to consider withdrawing life-sustaining therapies.

Design: Quantitative and qualitative analysis of semi-structured one-on-one interviews.

Setting: The PICUs at 2 tertiary care hospitals.

Pediatric residents' and fellows' perspectives on palliative care education.

Background: The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that pediatricians become knowledgeable in and comfortable with providing palliative care.

Objective: The study goals included: determining the extent of training, knowledge, experience, comfort and competence in palliative care communication and symptom management of pediatric residents and fellows; obtaining residents' and fellows' views on key palliative care concepts; identifying topics and methods for palliative care education; and identifying differences in responses between residents and fellows.

Design/methods: In academic year 2006-2007 pediatrics residents and fellows completed a survey on: training, experience, knowledge, competence, and comfort in delivering palliative care; palliative care practices; and suggestions for delivering palliative care education.

Pediatric End-of-Life Issues and Palliative Care.

Optimizing the quality of medical care at the end of life has achieved national status as an important health care goal. Palliative care, a comprehensive approach to treating the physical, psychosocial and spiritual needs of patients and their families facing life-limiting illnesses, requires the coordinated efforts of a multidisciplinary group of caregivers. Understanding the basic principles of palliative care can aid emergency department staff in identifying patients who could benefit from palliative care services and in managing the challenging situations that arise when such patients present to the hospital for care.

Parents' reactions to participating in interviews about end-of-life decision making.

Background: Although in-depth interviewing is well suited to studying the sensitive topic of end-of-life decision making, no reports have been published assessing the effects on parents of participating in interviews regarding end-of-life decision making for critically ill children.

Objective: To examine the reactions of pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) patients' parents to interviews on end-of-life decision making for their child.

Methods: We conducted semistructured interviews on end-of-life decision making with PICU patients' parents from two tertiary care PICUs.