The pediatrician and the dying child. "Physician, know thyself"

Area of Science:

• Pediatric Oncology
• Psychiatry
• Medical Psychology

Background:

• Professional medical staff face unique psychological challenges when caring for terminally ill children.
• Difficulties include confronting mortality, managing anger towards demanding patients or parents, and dealing with guilt over poor medical outcomes.
• These emotional burdens can impact the medical staff's ability to maintain professional role-appearance behavior.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify and address the psychological difficulties encountered by medical staff working with terminally ill children.
• To explore strategies for supporting the mental well-being of healthcare professionals in pediatric oncology.
• To understand how to mitigate the impact of patient mortality on medical staff.

Main Methods:

• A multidisciplinary team of psychiatrists and oncologists was involved in supporting the medical staff.
• Psychological support was offered indirectly.
• Weekly mental health conferences were utilized as a primary intervention, focusing on patient cases.

Main Results:

• The primary difficulty for medical staff is confronting the theme of death, often masked by other presenting problems.
• Staff may struggle with anger, over-identification with patients, and inappropriate guilt.
• Indirect psychotherapy and a patient-focused mental health conference were employed to manage these issues.

Conclusions:

• Addressing the psychological impact of working with terminally ill children is crucial for medical staff well-being.
• Thematic focus on patient cases in mental health conferences can indirectly support staff.
• Further exploration of direct and indirect support mechanisms for healthcare professionals in this field is warranted.