Communicating with children and families: from everyday interactions to skill in conveying distressing information

The parent perspective: "being a good parent" when making critical decisions in the PICU

OBJECTIVE

To identify factors important to parents making decisions for their critically ill child.

DESIGN

Prospective cross-sectional study.

SETTING

Single center, tertiary care PICU.

SUBJECTS

Parents making critical treatment decisions for their child.

INTERVENTION

One-on-one interviews that used the Good Parent Tool-2 open-ended question that asks parents to describe factors important for parenting their ill child and how clinicians could help them achieve their definition of "being a good parent" to their child. Parent responses were analyzed thematically. Parents also ranked themes in order of importance to them using the Good Parent Ranking Exercise.

MEASUREMENT AND MAIN RESULTS

Of 53 eligible parents, 43 (81%) participated. We identified nine themes through content analysis of the parent's narrative statements from the Good Parent Tool. Most commonly (60% of quotes) components of being a good parent described by parents included focusing on their child's quality of life, advocating for their child with the medical team, and putting their child's needs above their own. Themes key to parental decision making were similar regardless of parent race and socioeconomic status or child's clinical status. We identified nine clinician strategies identified by parents as helping them fulfill their parenting role, most commonly, parents wanted to be kept informed (32% of quotes). Using the Good Parent Ranking Exercise, fathers ranked making informed medical decisions as most important, whereas mothers ranked focusing on the child's health and putting their child's needs above their own as most important. However, mothers who were not part of a couple ranked making informed medical decisions as most important.

CONCLUSION

These findings suggest a range of themes important for parents to "be a good parent" to their child while making critical decisions. Further studies need to explore whether clinician's knowledge of the parent's most valued factor can improve family-centered care.

Feasibility and perceived benefits of a framework for physician-parent follow-up meetings after a child's death in the PICU

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the feasibility and perceived benefits of conducting physician-parent follow-up meetings after a child's death in the PICU according to a framework developed by the Collaborative Pediatric Critical Care Research Network.

DESIGN

Prospective observational study.

SETTING

Seven Collaborative Pediatric Critical Care Research Network-affiliated children's hospitals.

SUBJECTS

Critical care attending physicians, bereaved parents, and meeting guests (i.e., parent support persons, other health professionals).

INTERVENTIONS

Physician-parent follow-up meetings using the Collaborative Pediatric Critical Care Research Network framework.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS

Forty-six critical care physicians were trained to conduct follow-up meetings using the framework. All meetings were video recorded. Videos were evaluated for the presence or absence of physician behaviors consistent with the framework. Present behaviors were evaluated for performance quality using a 5-point scale (1 = low, 5 = high). Participants completed meeting evaluation surveys. Parents of 194 deceased children were mailed an invitation to a follow-up meeting. Of these, one or both parents from 39 families (20%) agreed to participate, 80 (41%) refused, and 75 (39%) could not be contacted. Of 39 who initially agreed, three meetings were canceled due to conflicting schedules. Thirty-six meetings were conducted including 54 bereaved parents, 17 parent support persons, 23 critical care physicians, and 47 other health professionals. Physician adherence to the framework was high; 79% of behaviors consistent with the framework were rated as present with a quality score of 4.3 ± 0.2. Of 50 evaluation surveys completed by parents, 46 (92%) agreed or strongly agreed the meeting was helpful to them and 40 (89%) to others they brought with them. Of 36 evaluation surveys completed by critical care physicians (i.e., one per meeting), 33 (92%) agreed or strongly agreed the meeting was beneficial to parents and 31 (89%) to them.

CONCLUSIONS

Follow-up meetings using the Collaborative Pediatric Critical Care Research Network framework are feasible and viewed as beneficial by meeting participants. Future research should evaluate the effects of follow-up meetings on bereaved parents' health outcomes.

The duty of the physician to care for the family in pediatric palliative care: context, communication, and caring

Pediatric palliative care physicians have an ethical duty to care for the families of children with life-threatening conditions through their illness and bereavement. This duty is predicated on 2 important factors: (1) best interest of the child and (2) nonabandonment. Children exist in the context of a family and therefore excellent care for the child must include attention to the needs of the family, including siblings. The principle of nonabandonment is an important one in pediatric palliative care, as many families report being well cared for during their child's treatment, but feel as if the physicians and team members suddenly disappear after the death of the child. Family-centered care requires frequent, kind, and accurate communication with parents that leads to shared decision-making during treatment, care of parents and siblings during end-of-life, and assistance to the family in bereavement after death. Despite the challenges to this comprehensive care, physicians can support and be supported by their transdisciplinary palliative care team members in providing compassionate, ethical, and holistic care to the entire family when a child is ill.

Lay people's and health professionals' views about breaking bad news to children

BACKGROUND

Bad health news is difficult to communicate, especially when parents must give bad news to their children.

METHODS

We had 170 lay persons, 33 nurses and six physicians in Toulouse, France, judge the appropriateness of the parents' behaviour in 64 scenarios of parents dealing with this problem. The scenarios were composed according to a four within-subject orthogonal design: child's age (4, 6, 8 or 10), severity of disease (lethal or worrisome but curable), child's concern or not about his illness and parents' decision about communicating the news (tell nothing, minimize, tell the truth or ask the physician to tell the truth).

RESULTS

Cluster analysis revealed four clusters, labelled 'Always Tell the Truth' (33%, including a majority of doctors and nurses), 'Tell Nothing or Minimize' (16%, with an older average age), 'Tell the Truth Except in Cases of Incurable Illness' (22%) and 'Depends on Child's Characteristics' (29%).

CONCLUSIONS

Physicians in training and in practice need to be aware that lay people--and likely parents as well--have diverse and complex opinions about when and how parents should give bad health news to their children.

Taiwanese parents' experience of making a "do not resuscitate" decision for their child in pediatric intensive care unit

PURPOSE

The purpose of this project was to explore the parental experience of making a "do not resuscitate" (DNR) decision for their child who is or was cared for in a pediatric intensive care unit in Taiwan.

METHODS

A descriptive qualitative study was conducted following parental signing of a standard hospital DNR form on behalf of their critically ill child. Sixteen Taiwanese parents of 11 children aged 1 month to 18 years were interviewed. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, analyzed and sorted into themes by the sole interviewer plus other researchers.

RESULTS

Three major themes were identified: (a) "convincing points to sign", (b) "feelings immediately after signing", and (c) "post-signing relief or regret". Feelings following signing the DNR form were mixed and included "frustration", "guilt", and "conflicting hope". Parents adjusted their attitudes to thoughts such as "I have done my best," and "the child's life is beyond my control." Some parents whose child had died before the time of the interview expressed among other things "regret not having enough time to be with and talk to my child".

CONCLUSION

Open family visiting hours plus staff sensitivity and communication skills training are needed. To help parents with this difficult signing process, nurses and other professionals in the pediatric intensive care unit need education on initiating the conversation, guiding the parents in expressing their fears, and providing continuing support to parents and children throughout the child's end of life process.

Pediatric Palliative Care and Hospice Care Commitments, Guidelines, and Recommendations

Pediatric palliative care and pediatric hospice care (PPC-PHC) are often essential aspects of medical care for patients who have life-threatening conditions or need end-of-life care. PPC-PHC aims to relieve suffering, improve quality of life, facilitate informed decision-making, and assist in care coordination between clinicians and across sites of care. Core commitments of PPC-PHC include being patient centered and family engaged; respecting and partnering with patients and families; pursuing care that is high quality, readily accessible, and equitable; providing care across the age spectrum and life span, integrated into the continuum of care; ensuring that all clinicians can provide basic palliative care and consult PPC-PHC specialists in a timely manner; and improving care through research and quality improvement efforts. PPC-PHC guidelines and recommendations include ensuring that all large health care organizations serving children with life-threatening conditions have dedicated interdisciplinary PPC-PHC teams, which should develop collaborative relationships between hospital- and community-based teams; that PPC-PHC be provided as integrated multimodal care and practiced as a cornerstone of patient safety and quality for patients with life-threatening conditions; that PPC-PHC teams should facilitate clear, compassionate, and forthright discussions about medical issues and the goals of care and support families, siblings, and health care staff; that PPC-PHC be part of all pediatric education and training curricula, be an active area of research and quality improvement, and exemplify the highest ethical standards; and that PPC-PHC services be supported by financial and regulatory arrangements to ensure access to high-quality PPC-PHC by all patients with life-threatening and life-shortening diseases.

Pediatric Palliative Care

Good communication is essential but sometimes challenging in pediatric palliative care. We describe 3 cases whereby miniature chairs made of various materials and colors were used successfully to encourage communication among pediatric patients, family, and health care professionals. This chair-inspired model may serve as a simple tool to facilitate complex discussions and to enable self-expression by children in the pediatric palliative care setting.

The pediatric surgeon and palliative care

Palliative care is now a core component of pediatric care for children and families who are confronting serious illness with a low likelihood of survival. Pediatric surgeons, in partnership with pediatric palliative care teams, can play a pivotal role in assuring that these patients receive the highest possible quality of care. This article outlines a variety of definitions and conceptual frameworks, describes decision-making strategies and communication techniques, addresses issues of interdisciplinary collaboration and personal self-awareness, and illustrates these points through a series of case vignettes, all of which can help the pediatric surgeon perform the core tasks of pediatric palliative care.

The pediatric surgeon-patient relationship

Though technical aspects of surgical practice are commonly emphasized, communication is the most frequent "procedure" employed by surgeons. A good patient-physician relationship enhances the quality of surgical care by improving outcomes and patient and family satisfaction. There are general principles that can enhance communication with all children and families. Employing a developmentally sensitive approach that adjusts communication style based on a child's cognitive abilities and emotional concerns can further enhance the relationship with children of different ages. These communication skills can be learned and are improved by practice and self-reflection.

Adherence to medication: A nation-wide study from the Children’s Cancer Hospital, Egypt

AIM: To investigate adherence to medical regimen and predictors for non-adherence among children with cancer in Egypt.

METHODS: We administered two study specific questionnaires to 304 parents of children diagnosed with cancer at the Children’s Cancer Hospital in Cairo, Egypt, one before the first chemotherapy treatment and the other before the third. The questionnaires were translated to colloquial Egyptian Arabic, and due, to the high illiteracy level in Egypt an interviewer read the questions in Arabic to each parent and registered the answers. Both questionnaires consisted of almost 90 questions each. In addition, a Case Report Form was filled in from the child’s medical journal. The study period consisted of 7 mo (February until September 2008) and we had a participation rate of 97%. Descriptive statistics are presented and Fisher’s exact test was used to check for possible differences between the adherent and non-adherent groups. A P-value below 0.05 was considered significant. Software used was SAS version 9.3 for Windows (SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, United States).

RESULTS: Two hundred and eighty-one (90%) parents answered the second questionnaire, regarding their child’s adherence behaviour. Approximately two thirds of the children admitted to their third chemotherapy treatment had received medical recommendations upon discharge from the first or second chemotherapy treatment (181/281, 64%). Sixty-eight percent (123/181) of the parents who were given medical recommendations reported that their child did not follow the recommendations. Two main predictors were found for non-adherence: child resistance (111/123, 90%) and inadequate information (100/123, 81%). In the adherent group, 20% of the parents (n = 12/58) reported trust in their child’s doctor while 14 percent 8/58 reported trust in the other health-care professionals. Corresponding numbers for the non-adherent group are 8/123 (7%) for both their child’s doctor and other health-care professionals. Almost all of the parents expressed a lack of optimism towards the treatment (116/121, 96%), yet they reported an intention to continue with the treatment for two main reasons, for the sake of their child’s life (70%) (P = 0.005) and worry that their child would die if they discontinued the treatment (81%) (P < 0.0001).

CONCLUSION: Non-adherence to medical regimen is common among children diagnosed with cancer in Egypt, the main reasons being child resistance and inadequate information.

A synthesis of the literature on breaking bad news or truth telling: potential for research in India

The high incidence of fatal diseases, inequitable access to health care, and socioeconomic disparities in India generate plentiful clinical bad news including diagnosis of a life-limiting disease, poor prognosis, treatment failure, and impending death. These contexts compel health care professionals to become the messengers of bad news to patients and their families. In global literature on breaking bad news, there is very little about such complex clinical interactions occurring in India or guiding health care providers to do it well. The purpose of this article is to identify the issues for future research that would contribute to the volume, comprehensiveness, and quality of empirical literature on breaking bad news in clinical settings across India. Towards this end, we have synthesized the studies done across the globe on breaking bad news, under four themes: (a) deciding the amount of bad news to deliver; (b) attending to cultural and ethical issues; (c) managing psychological distress; and (d) producing competent messengers of bad news. We believe that robust research is inevitable to build an indigenous knowledge base, enhance communicative competence among health care professionals, and thereby to improve the quality of clinical interactions in India.

Interventions for promoting participation in shared decision-making for children with cancer

BACKGROUND

Children's rights to have their views heard in matters that affect their lives are now well established since the publication of the UN Convention treaty (1989). Children with cancer generally prefer to be involved in decision-making and consider it important that they have the opportunity to take part in decision-making concerning their health care, even in end-of-life decisions. There is considerable support for involving children in healthcare decision-making at a level commensurate with their experience, age and abilities. Thus healthcare professionals and parents need to know how they should involve children in decision-making and what interventions are most effective in promoting shared decision-making (SDM) for children with cancer.

OBJECTIVES

To examine the effects of SDM interventions on the process of SDM for children with cancer who are aged four to 18 years.

SEARCH METHODS

We searched the following sources: Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), The Cochrane Library, Issue 9, 2012); PubMed (1946 to September 2012); EMBASE (1974 to September 2012); CINAHL (1982 to September 2012); PsycINFO (1806 to September 2012); BIOSIS (1980 to December 2009 - subscription ceased at that date); ERIC (1966 to September 2012); ProQuest Dissertations and Theses (1637 to September 2012); and Sociological Abstracts (1952 to September 2012). We searched for information about trials not registered in these resources, either published or unpublished, by searching the reference lists of relevant articles and review articles and the following conference proceedings (2005-2012):American Academy on Communication in Healthcare (AACH), European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO), European Cancer Conference (ECCO), European Association for Communication in Healthcare (EACH), International Conference on Communication in Healthcare (ICCH), International Shared Decision Making Conference (ISDM 2005-2011 as held every two years), Annual Conference of the International Society for Paediatric Oncology (SIOP) and Annual Scientific Meeting of the Society for Medical Decision Making (SMDM).We searched the International Scientific and Technical Proceedings database (2005 to September 2012). We also searched Dissertation Abstracts (from 1980 to September 2012).We scanned the ISRCTN (International Standard Randomized Controlled Trial Number) register and the National Institute of Health (NIH) Register for ongoing trials at: www.controlled-trials.com and clinicaltrials.gov on the 1 October 2012. We contacted authors for further details. We also contacted experts in this field.We did not impose language restrictions.

SELECTION CRITERIA

Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) of SDM interventions for children with cancer aged four to 18 years. The types of decisions included were: treatment, health care, and research participation decisions. The primary outcome was SDM as measured with any validated scale.

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS

Two review authors undertook the searches, and three review authors independently assessed the studies obtained. We contacted study authors for additional information.

MAIN RESULTS

No studies met the inclusion criteria, and hence no analysis could be undertaken.

AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS

No conclusions can be made on the effects of interventions to promote SDM for children with cancer aged four to 18 years. This review has highlighted the dearth of high-quality quantitative research on interventions to promote participation in SDM for children with cancer. There are many potential reasons for the lack of SDM intervention studies with children. Attitudes towards children's participation are slowly changing in society and such changes may take time to be translated or adopted in healthcare settings. The priority may be on developing interventions that promote children's participation in communication interactions since information-sharing is a prerequisite for SDM. Restricting this review to RCTs was a limitation and extending the review to non-randomised studies (NRS) may have produced more evidence. We plan to expand the types of studies in future updates. Clearly more research is needed.

Health and mental health needs of children in US military families

The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have been challenging for US uniformed service families and their children. Almost 60% of US service members have family responsibilities. Approximately 2.3 million active duty, National Guard, and Reserve service members have been deployed since the beginning of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq (2001 and 2003, respectively), and almost half have deployed more than once, some for up to 18 months' duration. Up to 2 million US children have been exposed to a wartime deployment of a loved one in the past 10 years. Many service members have returned from combat deployments with symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety, substance abuse, and traumatic brain injury. The mental health and well-being of spouses, significant others, children (and their friends), and extended family members of deployed service members continues to be significantly challenged by the experiences of wartime deployment as well as by combat mortality and morbidity. The medical system of the Department of Defense provides health and mental health services for active duty service members and their families as well as activated National Guard and Reserve service members and their families. In addition to military pediatricians and civilian pediatricians employed by military treatment facilities, nonmilitary general pediatricians care for >50% of children and family members before, during, and after wartime deployments. This clinical report is for all pediatricians, both active duty and civilian, to aid in caring for children whose loved ones have been, are, or will be deployed.

Family-centered care in the pediatric intensive care unit

Patient-centered and family-centered care (PFCC) has been endorsed by many professional health care organizations. Although variably defined, PFCC is an approach to care that is respectful of and responsive to the preferences, needs, and values of individual patients and their families. Research regarding PFCC in the pediatric intensive care unit has focused on 4 areas including (1) family visitation; (2) family-centered rounding; (3) family presence during invasive procedures and cardiopulmonary resuscitation; and (4) family conferences. Although challenges to successful implementation exist, the growing body of evidence suggests that PFCC is beneficial to patients, families, and staff.

Characteristics of family conferences at the bedside versus the conference room in pediatric critical care

OBJECTIVE

To compare characteristics of family conferences at the bedside vs. the conference room in the PICU.

DESIGN

Single-site, cohort survey study.

SETTING

Thirty-three bed academic PICU in an urban setting.

PARTICIPANTS

Ten PICU physicians (90.9%) providing care to 29 patients whose families participated in 58 family conferences.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS

Family conferences, defined as a meeting involving the parent(s) of a PICU patient and the critical care attending physician to discuss a treatment decision, redirection of care from curative to palliative, or deliver bad news, occurred most commonly among families of the sickest patients. Conferences were conducted at the bedside 20 times out of 58 (33%). Although physicians stated a general preference to discuss withdrawal or withholding care in the conference room, there was no difference in location during actual conferences. Physicians preferred the bedside when they wanted the patient to participate (p = 0.01) or because it was perceived to be easier (p < 0.0005) or faster (p = 0.016) to conduct, while the conference room was preferred when additional space was needed (p < 0.0005). Family conferences at the bedside were less likely to include a social worker (p < 0.0005), consultant physicians (p = 0.043), or father of the patient (p = 0.006) as compared with conferences in a conference room. Family conferences convened to discuss a treatment were followed by a decision within 24 hours (42% of the time) and a change in code status (32% of the time). In 32 of 58 family conferences (55%), the attending physician did not have a prior relationship with the family.

CONCLUSION

Family conferences in the PICU are common both at the bedside and in conference rooms in a subpopulation of the most critically ill children and frequently result in a treatment decision or change in code status.

Technical report: Ethical and policy issues in genetic testing and screening of children

The genetic testing and genetic screening of children are commonplace. Decisions about whether to offer genetic testing and screening should be driven by the best interest of the child. The growing literature on the psychosocial and clinical effects of such testing and screening can help inform best practices. This technical report provides ethical justification and empirical data in support of the proposed policy recommendations regarding such practices in a myriad of settings.

Selective disclosure in a first conversation about a family death in James Agee's novel A Death in the Family

The first conversation of a family about a family death is a neglected but potentially important topic. In a first conversation in James Agee's (1957/ 2006) novel A Death in the Family, the member who knows the most about the accidental death of another member discloses information selectively. The first conversation in Agee's novel suggests that communication and caring in the first family conversation about a death is attuned to family member emotions, particularly those of the family member considered most vulnerable, and that the aim is not a shared narrative that is true, but one that people can live with.

Understanding Pediatric Palliative Care

Advancing pediatric palliative care is desperately needed to support the physical, emotional, cultural, spiritual, and psychosocial needs of children and families who live with life-threatening illnesses. Although educational resources and standards of practice related to this topic have been developed, dissemination and implementation of programs have been slow to progress. The purpose of this case study is to present the lived experiences of an adolescent with leukemia and his family to illustrate how health care providers may benefit from receiving enhanced palliative and end-of-life care education.

Moving family-centered care forward: Bereaved fathers' perspectives

This paper describes the key behaviors of "excellent" pediatric healthcare providers - a term used by fathers of children with complex, life-threatening illness to describe providers who consistently and effectively engage in family-centered care for children and their families. Using interview data from a multi-site grounded theory study of 60 fathers with a deceased child, five behaviors were identified: getting to know the family as individuals, talking about non-healthcare related topics, connecting in a human-human relationship, including parents as team members, and applying specialized knowledge to help the family. These behaviors are consistent with the goals of family-centered care, but they are inconsistently practiced, resulting in less-than-optimal care for children and their families during periods of crisis and vulnerability. A renewed focus on relationship building and interactions with families is needed, as well as a re-evaluation of the training of pediatric healthcare providers.

A new model for breaking bad news to people with intellectual disabilities

OBJECTIVES

To develop a model for breaking bad news that meets the needs of people with intellectual disabilities (IDs).

DESIGN

A two-phase qualitative study featuring: (I) focus group meetings, on-line focus groups and one-to-one interviews; (II) structured feedback from participants and other stakeholders.

SETTING

Participants were drawn from National Health Service hospitals, Primary Care Trusts, independent organisations and on-line forums across England.

PARTICIPANTS

109 participants were purposively selected: 21 people with mild/moderate IDs, 28 family carers, 26 ID professionals and 34 general health professionals.

OUTCOME MEASURE

Feedback on a preliminary model for breaking bad news to people with IDs was collected from 60 participants and other stakeholders to assess relevance and acceptability, before the model was finalised.

RESULTS

Breaking bad news is best seen as a process, not an event or a linear series of events. Bad news situations usually constitute a wide range of discrete items or chunks of information. 'Building a foundation of knowledge' is central to the model. Information needs to be broken down into singular chunks of knowledge that can be added over time to people's existing framework of knowledge. Three other aspects should be considered at all times: capacity, people and support.

CONCLUSIONS

Patients who have IDs do not easily process verbal information in a clinical setting. The new model for breaking bad news to people with IDs needs to be tested in practice using robust outcome measures. The model's relevance to wider patient groups should also be evaluated.

Perinatal and pediatric issues in palliative and end-of-life care from the 2011 Summit on the Science of Compassion

More than 25,000 infants and children die in US hospitals annually; 86% occur in the NICU or PICU. Parents see the child's pain and suffering and, near the point of death, must decide whether to resuscitate, limit medical treatment, and/or withdraw life support. Immediately after the death, parents must decide whether to see and/or hold the infant/child, donate organs, agree to an autopsy, make funeral arrangements, and somehow maintain functioning. Few children and their families receive pediatric palliative care services, especially those from minority groups. Barriers to these programs include lack of services, difficulty identifying the dying point, discomfort in withholding or withdrawing treatments, communication problems, conflicts in care among providers and between parents and providers, and differences in cultural beliefs about end-of-life care. The 2011 NIH Summit on the Science of Compassion provided recommendations in family involvement, end-of-life care, communication, health care delivery, and transdisciplinary participation.

Enhancing communication about paediatric medicines: lessons from a qualitative study of parents' experiences of their child's suspected adverse drug reaction

Background

There is little research on parents' experiences of suspected adverse drug reactions in their children and hence little evidence to guide clinicians when communicating with families about problems associated with medicines.

Objective

To identify any unmet information and communication needs described by parents whose child had a suspected adverse drug reaction.

Methods

Semi-structured qualitative interviews with parents of 44 children who had a suspected adverse drug reaction identified on hospital admission, during in-patient treatment or reported by parents using the Yellow Card Scheme (the UK system for collecting spontaneous reports of adverse drug reactions). Interviews were conducted face-to-face or by telephone; most interviews were audiorecorded and transcribed. Analysis was informed by the principles of the constant comparative method.

Results

Many parents described being dissatisfied with how clinicians communicated about adverse drug reactions and unclear about the implications for their child's future use of medicines. A few parents felt that clinicians had abandoned their child and reported refusing the use of further medicines because they feared a repeated adverse drug reaction. The accounts of parents of children with cancer were different. They emphasised their confidence in clinicians' management of adverse drug reactions and described how clinicians prospectively explained the risks associated with medicines. Parents linked symptoms to medicines in ways that resembled the established reasoning that clinicians use to evaluate the possibility that a medicine has caused an adverse drug reaction.

Conclusion

Clinicians' communication about adverse drug reactions was poor from the perspective of parents, indicating that improvements are needed. The accounts of parents of children with cancer indicate that prospective explanation about adverse drug reactions at the time of prescription can be effective. Convergence between parents and clinicians in their reasoning for linking children's symptoms to medicines could be a starting point for improved communication.

Pediatric palliative care - The role of the patient’s family

Whenever a child suffers, what does she or he cry Mother! What does that mean Palliative care is not a type of medicine based on objective evidence or statistics. The only relevant standard is the very individual quality of life. Nobody knows better what this actually means but the patient himself. Thus, if the mother’s presence has the biggest impact on a child’s wellbeing or comfort, she herself is the most valuable treatment modality. In nearly every publication dealing with pediatric palliative care, it is stated that palliative care does not only imply care for the sick child but also for the parents and the whole family. Usually, it is pointed out that they are suffering a lot as well. But helping them does also mean: helping the child! Of course, it means higher efforts, obligations and costs for the healthcare system. Thus the justification of this effort may be put in question; in particular, it may be argued that disorders of family members should, if necessary, be treated as such. But this is only one side of the coin! In the following, we will, based on published literature, look at the role of mothers, fathers, and siblings for the wellbeing of an ill or even dying child. As a conclusion, we will learn that if it is our task to give a dying child the best available care, helping mothers, fathers and sibling is an inevitable part of it.

Multidisciplinary simulation in pediatric critical care: the death of a child

Health care providers are trained to care for the living. They may complete their education and enter the workforce without ever experiencing the death of a patient. Inexperience with the different roles of the multidisciplinary health care team is common. Moreover, the death of a child has a profound effect on parents and staff. In such situations, the expertise of the multidisciplinary team can make a difference. A multidisciplinary education project that uses high-fidelity simulation based on pediatric death and dying was developed to provide an experience during which health care practitioners could practice communicating with families about the death of their child and dealing with different grief reactions.

Discussing death with pediatric patients: implications for nurses

Communicating about end-of-life issues with a pediatric patient and their families can be difficult and uncomfortable for many nurses. The purposes of this article are to provide nurses a foundational overview of the child's understanding of death through the lens of awareness, development, and experience and to provide effective ways for nurses to implement this knowledge as they approach the topic of death with patients and their families.

Child abuse physicians: coping with challenges

This article explores how child abuse physicians (CAPs) experience the unique challenges of the emerging field of child abuse pediatrics. Practicing CAPs completed a written survey about known challenges in their field. Fifty-six CAPs completed the written survey and reported experiencing many negative consequences including: threats to their personal safety (52%), formal complaints to supervisors (50%) and licensing bodies (13%), negative stories in the media (23%), and malpractice suits (16%). A purposeful sample of CAPs participated in telephone interviews about these challenges. The 19 physicians who were interviewed described the challenges, while they spontaneously expressed satisfaction with their career and described some strategies for coping with the stresses of child abuse pediatrics. The findings highlight the stressors and challenges that may affect the ability to maintain an adequate CAP workforce. Better understanding of the challenges should help prepare physicians to practice this subspecialty.

Ascertaining children's wishes and feelings about hospital life

It is increasingly accepted that children have the right to have their views taken into consideration by healthcare providers. Children's opinions and experiences of hospitalisation are essential for monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of health services provision. In this paper we report on children's views and wishes about hospital and healthcare professionals. The children held both positive and negative views of hospital and healthcare professionals. Dissatisfaction was caused by insufficient information, lack of involvement, and inadequate play facilities. Their wishes were mainly concerned with the need for more information and more involvement in communication interactions with doctors and nurses. They wished to express their opinions, ask questions and receive information about care and procedures. They recommended that healthcare professionals make a better effort to listen and to take account of their views.

Development of a shared decision making coding system for analysis of patient-healthcare provider encounters

OBJECTIVES

To describe the development and refinement of a scheme, detail of essential elements and participants in shared decision making (DEEP-SDM), for coding shared decision making (SDM) while reporting on the characteristics of decisions in a sample of patients with metastatic breast cancer.

METHODS

The evidence-based patient choice instrument was modified to reflect Makoul and Clayman's integrative model of SDM. Coding was conducted on video recordings of 20 women at the first visit with their medical oncologists after suspicion of disease progression. Noldus Observer XT v.8, a video coding software platform, was used for coding.

RESULTS

The sample contained 80 decisions (range: 1-11), divided into 150 decision making segments. Most decisions were physician-led, although patients and physicians initiated similar numbers of decision-making conversations.

CONCLUSION

DEEP-SDM facilitates content analysis of encounters between women with metastatic breast cancer and their medical oncologists. Despite the fractured nature of decision making, it is possible to identify decision points and to code each of the essential elements of shared decision making. Further work should include application of DEEP-SDM to non-cancer encounters.

PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS

A better understanding of how decisions unfold in the medical encounter can help inform the relationship of SDM to patient-reported outcomes.

Egyptian mothers' preferences regarding how physicians break bad news about their child's disability: a structured verbal questionnaire

Background

Breaking bad news to mothers whose children has disability is an important role of physicians. There has been considerable speculation about the inevitability of parental dissatisfaction with how they are informed of their child’s disability. Egyptian mothers’ preferences for how to be told the bad news about their child’s disability has not been investigated adequately. The objective of this study was to elicit Egyptian mothers’ preferences for how to be told the bad news about their child’s disability.

Methods

Mothers of 100 infants recently diagnosed with Down syndrome were interviewed regarding their preferences for how to be told bad news. Mothers were recruited through outpatient clinics of the Pediatric Genetics Department at Fayoum University Hospital (located 90 km southwest of Cairo, Egypt) from January to June 2011.

Results and discussion

Questionnaire analyses revealed nine themes of parental preferences for how to be told information difficult to hear. Mothers affirmed previously reported recommendations for conveying bad medical news to parents, including being told early, being told of others with a similar condition, and being informed of the prognosis.

Conclusions

Mothers affirmed communication themes previously discussed in the literature, such as being told early, and being informed of the prognosis. Although more research is needed in this important area, we hope that our findings will stimulate future search and help health care providers in different societies establish guidelines for effectively communicating bad news.

Family-health professional relations in pediatric weight management: an integrative review

In this integrative review, we examined contemporary literature in pediatric weight management to identify characteristics that contribute to the relationship between families and health professionals and describe how these qualities can inform healthcare practices for obese children and families receiving weight management care. We searched literature published from 1980 to 2010 in three electronic databases (MEDLINE, PsycINFO and CINAHL). Twenty-four articles identified family-health professional relationships were influenced by the following: health professionals' weight-related discussions and approaches to care; and parents' preferences regarding weight-related terminology and expectations of healthcare delivery. There was considerable methodological heterogeneity in the types of reports (i.e. qualitative studies, review articles, commentaries) included in this review. Overall, the findings have implications for establishing a positive clinical relationship between families and health professionals, which include being sensitive when discussing weight-related issues, using euphemisms when talking about obesity, demonstrating a non-judgmental and supportive attitude and including the family (children and parents) in healthcare interactions. Experimental research, clinical interventions and longitudinal studies are needed to build on the current evidence to determine how best to establish a collaborative partnership between families and health professionals and whether such a partnership improves treatment adherence, reduces intervention attrition and enhances pediatric weight management success.

Struggling to do what is right for the child: pediatric life-support decisions among physicians and nurses in France and Quebec

This study examined (a) how physicians and nurses in France and Quebec make decisions about life-sustaining therapies (LSTs) for critically ill children and (b) corresponding ethical challenges. A focus groups design was used. A total of 21 physicians and 24 nurses participated (plus 9 physicians and 13 nurses from a prior secondary analysis). Principal differences related to roles: French participants regarded physicians as responsible for LST decisions, whereas Quebec participants recognized parents as formal decision-makers. Physicians stated they welcomed nurses' input but found they often did not participate, while nurses said they wanted to contribute but felt excluded. The LST limitations were based on conditions resulting in long-term consequences, irreversibility, continued deterioration, inability to engage in relationships and loss of autonomy. Ethical challenges related to: the fear of making errors in the face of uncertainty; struggling with patient/family consequences of one's actions; questioning the parental role and dealing with relational difficulties between physicians and nurses.

Parent's perceptions of health care providers actions around child ICU death: what helped, what did not

PURPOSE

To describe parents' perspectives of health care provider actions that helped or did not around the time of infant/child's intensive care unit (ICU) death. Semistructured interviews with 63 parents (Black, White, and Hispanic) 7 months post infant/child death were audio-recorded, transcribed, analyzed, and themes identified.

FINDINGS

What helped most: compassionate, sensitive staff; understandable explanations of infant's/child's condition; experienced, competent nurses; providers did everything to help infant/child; and parents' involvement in care decisions. What did not help: insensitive, nonsupportive staff; conflict between providers and parents; communication problems around the death; inexperienced nurses and doctors; parents not understanding child's disease, care, complications.

CONCLUSIONS

Compassionate, sensitive staff and understandable explanations of children's conditions were most helpful; insensitive, nonsupportive staff least helpful by gender, racial group, or care setting. Conflict between providers and parents was most problematic for minority parents and mothers.

Understanding the private worlds of physicians, nurses, and parents: a study of life-sustaining treatment decisions in Italian paediatric critical care

This study's aim was to describe: (a) How life-sustaining treatment (LST) decisions are made for critically ill children in Italy; and (b) How these decisional processes are experienced by physicians, nurses and parents. Focus groups with 16 physicians and 26 nurses, and individual interviews with 9 parents were conducted. Findings uncovered the 'private worlds' of paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) physicians, nurses and parents; they all suffer tremendously and privately. Physicians struggle with the weight of responsibility and solitude in making LST decisions. Nurses struggle with feelings of exclusion from decisions regarding patients and families that they care for. Physicians and nurses are distressed by legal barriers to LST withdrawal. Parents struggle with their dependence on physicians and nurses to provide care for their child and strive to understand what is happening to their child. Features of helpful and unhelpful communication with parents are highlighted, which should be considered in educational and practice changes.

The consultation as an interpretive dialogue about the child's health needs

BACKGROUND

Though uniquely placed in the health care system, GPs only become aware of a small number of children with behavioural and emotional problems. Research evaluating the challenges and barriers in general practice for identifying children with problems is therefore important.

OBJECTIVES

To identify and articulate GPs' experiences and perceptions of the GP-parent dialogue about children's health problems, in order to broaden our understanding of the challenges inherent to the dialogue.

METHODS

The GPs' experiences and recollections were explored in a qualitative study comprising four focus group discussions and nine individual interviews. The focus of study was to explore GP consultations with children 0-5 years of age and their parent/s.

RESULTS

Though expressing a family-focused approach to the child consultation, the GPs often did not succeed in making the consultation family focused. The analysis revealed that the GPs often were 'stuck' in the traditional role of expert and this made it difficult for them to explore the child's well-being. The consultation became more family focused when the GPs moved away from the role of expert. The GPs experienced that by sharing their uncertainty with parents, they often got more insight into the child's everyday life and family circumstances.

CONCLUSION

The study indicates that through open reflective dialogue the GP is able to assess the child and strengthen mutual trust in the doctor-parent relationship to the benefit of children with special needs.

The experience of parents and children where children have been supported with a ventricular assist device as a bridge to heart transplantation

There is little information to assist in understanding the experience endured by parents and children where children have been supported with a ventricular assist device (VAD) as a bridge to heart transplantation. Consequently, the aims of this study were to gain an understanding of children's and parents' experience where children have been supported with a VAD as a bridge to heart transplantation and to use this information to improve the Royal Children's Hospital (RCH) VAD program. This study employed a qualitative approach using purposive sampling. Semistructured interviews were conducted with children aged 13 years or more and their parents to determine their experience of having required VAD support as a bridge to transplantation. Results demonstrated a lack of information that prepared families and children for the anticipated course of treatment on VAD support. Recommendations to improve the VAD program for parents and children include more information through meetings, as well as in a written format, and speaking to other families who had already experienced VAD. For children in particular, a visual of the VAD, its associated equipment, and an image of where it is placed in the body is vital information that is necessary prior to VAD support. Overall, the recommendations are important and should be made available to improve the experience for children and parents, not only of the RCH VAD program but for all hospitals offering VAD therapy.