Since dealing with terminally ill children is challenging, the health care workers should participate in special training. There are a lot of …show more content…
There could be many definitions for the best interest and one specifically is from an article about determining the best interests during court cases. According to Griffth (2013), “the best interest refers to the likely life-expectancy of the child if life-sustaining treatment were given and how much pain and suffering the child would have to endure”(p.112). This allows for health care workers to understand that if the child is in an extreme amount of pain and they are only prolonging the death, it is not in the best interest of the child. This allows for disagreements between different physicians and the family members of the child because both want the best for the …show more content…
The end of life care allows for the health care workers to assist and tend to the child and family (Beringer & Heckford, 2014). By participation in the end of life care, it allows for the family to prepare and arrange how the physicians should deal with their child in different circumstances. By having the plan written, it allows the physician to reference back to it to confirm what he is doing is what the family wishes him to do (Beringer & Heckford, 2014). The doctor can make changes, but he has to record them and allow the family to decide if they agree or not. In the Journal of Pediatrics and Child Health, it says “This approach requires team members to listen intensely and respectfully to understand the patient’s beliefs, attitudes, values, relationships and priorities when formulating a care plan” (Epelman, 2012). By doing this, the family and physician can agree on treatments that benefit the child the best. In another article about policies and practices it discussed that when there was a policy in place, “The staff felt their policies and practices were significantly more effective in addressing the needs of the patients, the families, and the other staff” (Friedman, Helm & Woodman, 2014). When there was not a policy in place, the facilities were not able to accommodate the different needs of the