Prevalence and Characteristics of Neonatal Comfort Care Patients: A Single-Center, 5-Year, Retrospective, Observational Study

Defining and quantifying population-level need for children's palliative care: findings from a rapid scoping review

BACKGROUND

The number of children who require palliative care has been estimated to be as high as 21 million globally. Delivering effective children's palliative care (CPC) services requires accurate population-level information on current and future CPC need, but quantifying need is hampered by challenges in defining the population in need, and by limited available data. The objective of this paper is to summarise how population-level CPC need is defined, and quantified, in the literature.

METHODS

Scoping review performed in line with Joanna Briggs Institute methodology for scoping reviews and PRISMA-ScR guidelines. Six online databases (CINAHL, Cochrane Library, EMBASE, Medline, PsycINFO, and Web of Science), and grey literature, were searched.

INCLUSION CRITERIA

literature published in English; 2008-2023 (Oct); including children aged 0-19 years; focused on defining and/or quantifying population-level need for palliative care.

RESULTS

Three thousand five hundred seventy-eight titles and abstracts initially reviewed, of which, 176 full-text studies were assessed for eligibility. Overall, 51 met the inclusion criteria for this scoping review. No universal agreement identified on how CPC need was defined in population-level policy and planning discussions. In practice, four key definitions of CPC need were found to be commonly applied in quantifying population-level need: (1) ACT/RCPCH (Association for Children with Life-Threatening or Terminal Conditions and their Families, and the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health) groups; (2) The 'Directory' of Life-Limiting Conditions; (3) 'List of Life-Limiting Conditions'; and (4) 'Complex Chronic Conditions'. In most cases, variations in data availability drove the methods used to quantify population-level CPC need and only a small proportion of articles incorporated measures of complexity of CPC need.

CONCLUSION

Overall, greater consistency in how CPC need is defined for policy and planning at a population-level is important, but with sufficient flexibility to allow for regional variations in epidemiology, demographics, and service availability. Improvements in routine data collection of a wide range of care complexity factors could facilitate estimation of population-level CPC need and ensure greater alignment with how need for CPC is defined at the individual-level in the clinical setting.

Ethical Dilemmas in Neonatal Care at the Limit of Viability

Advances in neonatal care have pushed the limit of viability to incrementally lower gestations over the last decades. However, surviving extremely premature neonates are prone to long-term neurodevelopmental handicaps. This makes ethics a crucial dimension of periviable birth management. At 22 weeks, survival ranges from 1 to 15%, and profound disabilities in survivors are common. Consequently, there is no beneficence-based obligation to offer any aggressive perinatal management. At 23 weeks, survival ranges from 8 to 54%, and survival without severe handicap ranges from 7 to 23%. If fetal indication for cesarean delivery appears, the procedure may be offered when neonatal resuscitation is planned. At a gestational age ≥24 weeks, up to 51% neonates are expected to survive the neonatal period. Survival without profound neurologic disability ranges from 12 to 38%. Beneficence-based obligation to intervene is reasonable at these gestations. Nevertheless, autonomy of parents should also be respected, and parental consent should be sought prior to any intervention. Optimal counselling of parents involves harmonized cooperation of obstetric and neonatal care providers. Every fetus/neonate and every pregnant woman are different and have the right to be considered individually when treatment decisions are being made.

Attitudes Toward Neonatal Palliative Care Among Turkish Nurses and Physicians: A Comparative Cross-sectional Study

Few studies have examined and compared neonatal physicians' and nurses' attitudes toward palliative care. This comparative study sought to evaluate attitudes toward neonatal palliative care in neonatal nurses and physicians and identify associated facilitators and barriers. This comparative, cross-sectional study included 173 neonatal intensive care unit staff (149 neonatal nurses and 24 neonatal physicians) in 2 hospitals in Istanbul, Turkey. Data were collected using the Turkish version of the Neonatal Palliative Care Attitude Scale. The results of the study revealed 8 facilitators and 9 barriers to neonatal palliative care. Nurses were significantly more likely than physicians to agree that parents are informed about palliative care options in their unit ( P = .008), that caring for dying infants is traumatic ( P = .007), and that their willingness to provide palliative care is influenced by their personal attitudes toward death ( P = .015). This study demonstrates the importance of parents' active involvement in the palliative care process, the establishment of standard policies and guidelines, and the provision of vocational and in-service education programs to support palliative care. Initiatives to strengthen facilitators and mitigate barriers are needed to optimize the implementation of palliative care in NICUs.

End-of-Life Care Related Distress in the PICU and NICU: A Cross-Sectional Survey in a German Tertiary Center

Objective: To investigate and compare nurses' perceived care-related distress and experiences in end-of-life situations in neonatal and pediatric intensive care units. Study design: Single-center, cross-sectional survey. Administration of an anonymous self-report questionnaire survey to nurses of two tertiary neonatal intensive care units (NICUs), and two tertiary pediatric intensive care units (PICUs) in Berlin, Germany. Results: Seventy-three (73/227, response rate 32.2%) nurses completed surveys. Both, NICU (32/49; 65.3%) and PICU (24/24; 100.0%) nurses, reported "staffing shortages" to be the most frequent source of distress in end-of-life situations. However, when asked for the most distressing factor, the most common response by NICU nurses (17/49) was "lack of clearly defined and agreed upon therapeutic goals", while for PICU nurses (12/24) it was "insufficient time and staffing". No significant differences were found in reported distress-related symptoms in NICU and PICU nurses. The interventions rated by NICU nurses as most helpful for coping were: "discussion time before the patient's death" (89.6%), "team support" (87.5%), and "discussion time after the patient's death" (87.5%). PICU nurses identified "compassion" (98.8%), "team support", "personal/private life (family, friends, hobbies)", and "discussion time after the patient's death" (all 87.5%) as most helpful. Conclusions: Distress-related symptoms as a result of end-of-life care were commonly reported by NICU and PICU nurses. The most frequent and distressing factors in end-of-life situations might be reduced by improving institutional/organizational factors. Addressing the consequences of redirection of care, however, seems to be a more relevant issue for the relief of distress associated with end-of-life situations in NICU, as compared to PICU nurses.

Extending the Concept of Advance Care Planning to the Perinatal Period

Easier access to prenatal diagnostic procedures led to its widespread use as a screening measure. Hence, today it is more common for life-limiting illnesses to be diagnosed during fetal life. The concept of Advance Care Planning (ACP) provides a framework for caregivers, families and their multidisciplinary teams to anticipate and plan ahead for potential future medical decisions so that the affected children are reliably treated according to their parents' individual values and wishes. In the perinatal context, ACP also has the potential to tackle the needs of unborn or newborn children with life-limiting illnesses and their families better, avoid unnecessary and burdensome measures and focus upon goals that are valuable and meaningful to both child and family.

Development of a Perinatal Palliative Care Model at a Level II Perinatal Center Supported by a Pediatric Palliative Care Network

Objective: To describe the model build up to take care of fetuses and newborns eligible to perinatal palliative care (PnPC) followed in an Italian II level perinatal center. Methods: Retrospective chart review of all fetuses and newborn infants eligible to PnPC admitted to level II perinatal center within a 4 years period. Results: Forty-five of 848 infants (0.5%) referred to II level NICU were eligible to PnPC. Twenty-seven percentage had fetal diagnosis. Twenty percentage were preterm infants at the limit of viability, 35% were newborns with life limiting or life threatening disease diagnosed in utero or at the postnatal ward, 45% were newborns not responding to intensive care intervention with high health care needs or medical complexity. Fifty-seven percentage of neonates admitted to NICU died before discharge, while 16 (35% of population considered) were discharged home. Median age at death was 4 days after birth, and delivery room death immediately after birth occurred in six patients (13%). Conclusions: Despite the paucity of our population and the high variability in disease trajectories the perinatal palliative care program build up in our region provides a reproducible method for a structured taking in charge of fetuses and neonates eligible to PnPC and their families, from the time of diagnosis to bereavement, in both outpatient and inpatient settings.