Pediatric nursing
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Palliative care is an emerging nursing specialty and is developing a dedicated spot in the field of pediatrics. As a specialty, palliative care focuses on quality of life and symptom management for patients who are living with chronic and life-threatening diseases. In pediatrics, advances in health care mean that many children are living longer with these conditions and could benefit from services that focus on quality of life and superior symptom management. Palliative care can be provided concurrently with curative therapies and is philosophically similar yet distinct from hospice services.
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The value of palliative care in pediatrics has received significant attention over the past 10 years. The American Academy of Pediatrics and the Institute of Medicine published recommendations involving children who have a life-limiting diagnosis in a palliative care program early in their disease process. ⋯ Implementing a hospital-based palliative care program in a children's hospital can be accomplished through careful planning and analysis of need. Writing an official business plan formalized the request for organizational support for this program, including the mission and vision, plans for how services would be provided, expected financial implications, and initial plans for evaluation of success.
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This study evaluated a virtual tour entitled, "Surgery Virtual Tour," offered on a Web site of a university-affiliated pediatric center. A pre-experimental one-group pretest-posttest design was used to assess the level of health care knowledge, emotional state, degree of utilization, and perceived usefulness of the Virtual Tour. The convenience sample consisted of 138 children having same-day surgery and their parents. ⋯ Children who viewed the Web site had statistically significant higher knowledge scores than those who did not. Although there was no statistically significant difference in emotional distress for children in either group before the surgery (Time 1) to the day of the surgery (Time 2), parents' level of emotional distress increased significantly from Time 1 to Time 2 when they took the Virtual Tour. The results of this study will help clinicians and managers build virtual tours for children undergoing same-day surgery and their parents.
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Several studies have investigated nurses' attitudes toward hospice and palliative care for adults, yet little information exists about pediatrics. Assessing pediatric nurses' attitudes is especially important in Florida, where a publicly funded pediatric palliative care program operates in eight cities across the State. The aims of this study were 1) to assess the attitudes toward hospice and palliative care, and 2) to examine the associations between sociodemographic and nursing care factors and nurses' attitudes toward hospice and palliative care. ⋯ Bivariate results showed there were significant differences between the attitudes of pediatric nurses employed in a city with a pediatric palliative care program versus those not employed in a program site (p = 0.05). Multivariate analyses also showed that being employed in a program site increased attitudinal scores toward hospice and pediatric palliative care by 0.6 points. Beyond being employed in an area city where a pediatric palliative care program operates, results also suggest that having prior training in palliative care could alter nurses' attitudes, which might subsequently lead to increased referrals and improved outcomes for children and families.