Pain and Palliative Care in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit: Case Studies in Collaboration

Abstract

Pain and palliative care teams often have great difficulty increasing consultations in departments that have traditionally used few consultants in the care of their patient populations. In our organization, the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) has had a somewhat “closed door policy” toward the use of the pain and palliative care team. A review of three case studies of neonates with pain and anticipated poor outcomes demonstrates the importance of building relationships, collaboration, teamwork, defining goals and defining roles. Team members include parents, attending physicians, other consultants, nurses, social workers and chaplaincy. Following the presentation of case studies, participants will be asked to share examples of successes and struggles with building pediatric/neonatal pain consultations. Through the use of this discussion, participants will come away with ideas for broadening consultations into areas within their own organization that have not previously been open to the use of pain consultants.