Weaver, Meaghann S.

Background: Understanding perceptions of family caregivers' roles and responsibilities regarding their child with complex cardiac needs has potential to help care teams better support parents. Paternal experience has been under-explored in pediatric cardiac cohorts.;

Background: Children in rural geographies are not universally able to access pediatric-trained palliative or hospice providers.

Objective: Determine whether telehealth inclusion of a familiar pediatric palliative care provider during the first two home-based hospice visits was acceptable to children, families, and adult-trained home hospice nurses in rural settings. Design: Case series. Setting: Home hospice in rural Midwest. Participants: Patients <18 years of age enrolling in home hospice for end-of-life care.

Background: Despite standardization in disease assessments and curative interventions for childhood cancer, palliative assessments and psychosocial interventions remain diverse and disparate.

Objective: The death of a child has been associated with adverse parental outcomes, including a heightened risk for psychological distress, poor physical health, loss of employment income, and diminished psychosocial well-being. Psychosocial standards of care for centers serving pediatric cancer patients recommend maintaining at least one meaningful contact between the healthcare team and bereaved parents to identify families at risk for negative psychosocial sequelae and to provide resources for bereavement support.

The article discusses the effectiveness of family caregiver partnerships in the design and implementation of pediatric palliative care (PPC) research. Also cited are the importance of the perspectives of family caregivers, clinicians and researchers in improving research, and the principles of patient- and family-centered research like honesty, cultural competency, and transparency.