Pediatric Palliative Care: A Case Study

Today as we live in the 21st century, the general populations knowledge of pediatric palliative care is miniscule. The death of a child is considered unimaginable, the day when a parent has to bury their child is seen as one of the worst possible life experience one could endure. The focus of this paper will be on the nursing care of a child, symptom management (pain), family care, and the deciding factors and process of choosing where the child will die. There have been many studies on the end of life care of the pediatric community but in the eyes of many people there is no distinct difference between palliative and hospice care. The death of a child is a topic that is typically avoided or unspoken due to the morbidity of the topic or their …show more content…
“The World Health Organization defines quality of life as ‘an individual’s perception of their position in life, in the context of the culture and value systems in which they live and in relation to their goals, expectations, standards, and concerns” (O’Quinn & Giambra, 2014, p. 284). Again, the death of a child still a very sensitive and scary topic to discuss. “The studies demonstrated that palliative care services may improve quality of life emotionally and mentally for patients and their families” (O’Quinn & Giambra, 2014, p. 288). Due to their being very little evidence behind this study there is no definitive answer behind where the child’s finally resting space should be. I believe that with further studies and research the answer will begin to become more definite and defined, but will there ever be “the right” place for a child to die? There are still so many unanswered questions and fear of the unknown, that finding the right answer to the question behind palliative or hospice care within the pediatric community is going to be difficult and a long …show more content…
What I can say is that with the information that I gained about the quality of life and nursing care of the child and their family is that I can embrace the difficulty behind any situation in which a child is dying. As far as care for the dying child I believe the best possible thing I can do is provide both the child with managing their symptoms along with providing them with comfort and reassurance. For the family, I will be able to connect with them on a more emotional level than physical aid to them, make sure that they are included in the entire process and provide them with my own personal support but also providing them with community-based resources where they will be able to connect with other families that share similar