Paediatric palliative care delivered by an adult palliative care service

Area of Science:

• Palliative Care
• Paediatric Medicine
• Healthcare Services Research

Background:

• Paediatric palliative care is an emerging discipline addressing the unique needs of children requiring end-of-life care.
• Ireland lacks specialist paediatric palliative medicine physicians, leading to adult-trained teams managing paediatric cases.
• This highlights a gap in specialized care for dying children.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the experiences of an adult palliative care service when providing care to children.
• To identify challenges and successes in cross-disciplinary paediatric palliative care.

Main Methods:

• A mixed-methods approach was employed, including a retrospective chart review of paediatric referrals.
• A questionnaire survey was administered to gather data on the service experience.
• A focus group discussion explored healthcare professionals' perspectives on caring for children.

Main Results:

• Key themes emerged, including staff competence and stress levels.
• Uncertainty in prognosis and resource implications were significant findings.
• Effective co-operation with other healthcare teams was identified as important.

Conclusions:

• Adult palliative care teams encounter specific challenges when extending services to paediatric patients.
• Many skills transferable from adult palliative care are applicable to children.
• Integrating adult and paediatric palliative care teams offers complementary expertise to better serve terminally ill children.