Abstract
Objective: To describe what has been published in Brazilian scientific literature regarding pediatric palliative care. Data sources: Bibliographic review with a descriptive approach. In LILACS and SciELO databases, the descriptors "palliative care", "child", "pediatrics", "terminal illness" and "death" were sought, from January 2002 to December 2011. The eight selected articles were analyzed according to year of publication, type of study, data collected, target population, pathology, professionals involved, types of care and main findings. Data synthesis: Regarding the year of publication, there was an increase in the number of publications related to pediatric palliative care. Regarding the type of study, four articles were literature reviews and four were qualitative researches. Data was collected mainly by semi-structured interviews. The participants of the majority of the studies were children's relatives and health professionals. The main pathology addressed was cancer and the nurses were the most frequently cited professionals. The types of care provided were related to physical aspects, general care and psychological, social and spiritual aspects (less emphasis). The main findings were: little emphasis on the children's needs, the importance of including the family in the care provided and the lack of preparation of the health team. Conclusions: Despite the difficulties and the challenges in establishing pediatric palliative care, many articles brought important considerations for the development of this practice in the country.
Highlights
Palliative care in pediatrics is characterized by providing an active total care to the child, considering body, mind, and soul, as well as support to the family
Regarding the year of publication, we noticed an increase in the number of studies related to the field of pediatric palliative care in the period of literature review
Concerning the aspects related to family members, we found the following information: need to care for family members; importance to meet the biopsychosocial needs of the family; physical, material, emotional, financial, and social overburden; feelings of loss of family members due to the possibility of death and denial of the incurability of the disease, leading to comorbidities such as hypertension, obesity, depression and sleep disturbance; other experienced feelings, such as attachment, anxiety, failure, sadness, discouragement, helplessness and defeat; difficulty by the family in communicating the truth to the child
Summary
Palliative care in pediatrics is characterized by providing an active total care to the child, considering body, mind, and soul, as well as support to the family. Palliative care is effective when there is a multidisciplinary team to promote the relief of physical, psychological, and social suffering of the child and can be offered in locations such as tertiary institutions, health centers, and even at home[1]. Palliative care begins at diagnosis and continues even if the subject receives a curative treatment or not. With the progression of the disease, there is an increasing applicability of palliative care, which extends to bereavement[3]. This integration between curative and palliative treatment improves care coordination, avoids fragmentation[3], besides offering the maximum emotional, social, and spiritual well-being for the child and the family[4]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
