• Natalie Jewitt, Kenneth Mah, Michael Bonares, Kevin Weingarten, Heather Ross, Reshma Amin, Conall Thomas Morgan, Camilla Zimmermann, and Kirsten Wentlandt.
• Pediatric Advanced Care Team (PACT), The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Canada (N.J., K.W.); Department of Pediatrics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada (N.J., K.W., R.A., C.T.M.).
• J Pain Symptom Manage. 2022 Nov 1; 64 (5): 461470461-470.

ContextChildren and adults with advanced cardiac or respiratory disease may benefit from specialized palliative care (SPC), but there has been little SPC research in this area.ObjectivesTo explore pediatric cardiologists' and respirologists' (pediatric clinicians) beliefs about and referral practices to SPC and compare these results to adult cardiologists and respirologists (adult clinicians).MethodsPediatric and adult clinicians were sent a survey exploring SPC referral practices and beliefs. Responses were summarized with descriptive statistics. Pediatric and adult clinicians' responses were compared using Pearson's chi-square test.ResultsThe response rate was 56% (989/1759); 9% (87/989) were pediatric clinicians. Pediatric clinicians were more likely than adult clinicians to be female, work in an academic center, and experience fewer patient deaths (P<0.001). Pediatric clinicians reported better access to SPC clinical nurse specialists, spiritual care specialists and bereavement counselors (P<0.001), while adult clinicians reported better access to palliative care units (P<0.001). Pediatric clinicians referred to SPC earlier, while adult clinicians tended to refer after disease directed therapies were stopped (P<0.001). More than half of all clinicians felt patients had negative perceptions of the phrase "palliative care". Although most clinicians were satisfied with SPC quality (73-82%), fewer adult clinicians were satisfied with SPC availability (74 vs. 47%; P<0.001). Fewer pediatric clinicians felt that SPC prioritized oncology patients (13 vs. 53%; P<0.001).ConclusionThere are important differences between pediatric and adult clinicians' beliefs about and referral practices to SPC. This may reflect unique features of pediatric diseases, provider characteristics, care philosophies, or service availability.Copyright © 2022 American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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