Issues, Challenges, and Potential of Palliative Care in Pediatric Nursing: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Background: Palliative care is an essential right for infants and children with a life-threaten­ing ill­ness. However, palliative care is still un­ava­il­able in some developing countries. This stu­dy aim­ed to explore the issues, challenges, and po­ten­tial of palliative care in pediatric nursing care. Subjects and Method: A systematic review was conducted by searching published articles in PubMed, CINAHL, and EMBASE databases, from year 2000 to 2018. The keywords used for this stu­dy included “palliative” AND “children”, “pal­lia­tive” AND “nursing” AND “care”, “palliative ca­re” AND “pediatric care”. The data were analyzed by PRISMA flow diagram. Results: Palliative care is evolving continuously, meeting new challenges, and expand­ing beyond the care of terminally ill pediatric patients. A ma­jor challenge in palliative care is effective com­mu­­nication. However, only a few communication trainings exist for nurses. Obstacles of palliative care in pediatrics nursing included clinical, ope­ra­tional, and financial factors. However, pallia­tive care has a substantial potential to reduce morbidity in infants and children. In addition, a cohort study conducted in 265 pedia­tric cancer patients reported that palliative care reduced pain and improved their life expectancy. Conclusion: Palliative care is a comprehensive app­roach of care and its delivery to pediatric pa­tients is challenging. It has a substantial potential in reducing infant and child morbidity. Keywords: palliative care, pediatric nursing, pal­li­ative nursing Correspondence: Aris Widiyanto. School of Health Sciences Mam­ba'ul 'Ulum, Surakarta, Jl. Ring Road Utara, Ta­wangsari, Mojosongo, Jebres, Surakarta, Central Java. Email: widiyantoaris99@gmail.com. Mo­bile: 081329209095 Journal of Maternal and Child Health (2020), 5(1): 167-172 https://doi.org/10.26911/thejmch.2020.05.02.06