Paper

Best Practices

Lindsey Blair Causseaux

Rasmussen College

I found my best practice article by searching for best practices in pediatrics. The article that sparked my interest involves best practice when it comes to pediatric palliative care. Palliative care is something that is often mistaken by many as the same thing as hospice care. Although to the two have similarities they are not the same. Palliative care focuses on improving quality of life for patient and family. This paper will discuss the best practice of palliative care for pediatrics from an article titled Best Practice in Pediatrics Palliative Care: Giving Voice to the Voiceless.

Many people mistake palliative care for end of life care so bringing up the subject is not common. Palliative care can add quality of life for both patients and families so it is necessary that palliative care is implemented as a new standard when caring for chronically ill patients “we can move PPC from a ‘nice to have’ to a ‘must have’ standard of care for all children with chronic, complex, and/or life-threatening conditions and their families (Friebert.)” Palliative care needs to stop being an avoided subject. “Further, we need to stop asking patients and families if they ‘want’ a palliative care consult (Friebert.)” If the patient can benefit from palliative care it should be automatic that they receive a consult just like a patient with a fever of unknown origin gets an internal medicine consult. It is necessary in pediatric palliative care that the child’s voice is listened to. Although they do not make decisions when it comes to their care they still should have an input. “…the child’s voice should be the standard in guiding our care, for children who are developmentally able to convey their preferences and participate in the health care decision making (Friebert.)” The child is the patient that is going through the suffering of their disease so they should have a voice in the matter. “…seek the child’s voice...