Communication Barriers Research Articles

Effective nursing leadership as a catalyst for person-centered care and positive nursing-patient interactions: evidence from a public Ghanaian hospital

Person-centered care (PCC) is crucial to patient engagement in healthcare enhancing patients’ participation in critical care decision-making, increasing care disclosure, reducing medication errors, and promoting satisfaction with care outcomes. Healthcare management and leadership practices contribute to effective communication and interactions between healthcare providers and patients, which is vital for quality PCC outcomes and patient perceptions of care providers. However, little is known about how nursing leadership influences PCC and clinical interactions in the Ghanaian setting, which this study saw as a gap and aims to fill. This paper reports data from interdisciplinary exploratory qualitative research to examine the impacts of nursing leadership practices on nurse-patient relationships and care outcomes. Nurses (11), patients (22), and caregivers (11) participated in the study. Data were gathered in Ghana through interviews, focus groups, and participant observations and analyzed thematically. The three themes which emerged were: hospital leadership and the nursing staff, healthcare management practices, and communication barriers regarding how nursing leadership impacts PCC. Poor relationships between nurses and hospital leaders affected nurses’ caring practices. Management practices, including an annual rotation of nurses across different patient wards and exigent patient record management routines, negatively impacted care delivery and patient-provider interactions. These leadership practices and the strained relationships between nurses and hospital leaders potentially derail effective PCC. Nursing and hospital managers must embrace transformational leadership and healthcare management practices, especially in resource-scare settings, that foster a trusting care culture and/or environment for therapeutic nurse-patient relationships to thrive and for PCC to be actualized.

The Experiences of Migrant Care Workers in Long-term Care Facilities: A Scoping Review.

The employment of migrant care workers provides a remedy to face the challenges of increased demand for care of older adults. A scoping review aimed to identify, categorize, and summarize the existing knowledge about migrant care workers' working experiences in long-term care facilities. Identifying gaps in the literature can inform future research. Five electronic databases were searched in April 2024 in addition to a manual search for articles published in English. Forty-five articles were reviewed. A few studies described migrant care assistants' main tasks as assisting physical care and care assistants' characteristics grouped into personal and acquired qualities to provide good quality care. Migrant care workers experienced work satisfaction, achievement, adaptability and adjustment, organizational support, work burden, sense of loneliness, low wages, low social status, and loss of profession. They faced challenges involving inadequate knowledge of palliative care, communication and language barriers, cultural and religious differences, and health concerns. Friendly and discriminatory relationships were found between migrant care workers and stakeholders. Existing evidence regarding the experiences of migrant care workers in delivering palliative care to dying residents or facilitating death preparation is limited. Additionally, there is a notable absence of data from the perspectives of employers and residents on discrimination issues. Further research is necessary to investigate these areas.

Adaptive Approaches to Physical Pain Treatment Modalities During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Analysis.

Background and Purpose: Despite the lack of proven efficacy, opioids historically have been used for the treatment of noncancer back pain. A variety of other effective therapeutic options for pain management are becoming more available over time. In 2016, Oregon implemented a unique and novel policy to improve evidence-based back pain care and promote safer and more effective opioid prescribing through the state's Medicaid program, the Oregon Health Plan. This article examines the ways providers adapted to providing care for patients with back pain in the context of COVID-19 and to better understand the challenges faced by and adaptations made by providers. Methods: We conducted focus groups with clinicians and physical pain treatment modality practitioners (PPTMPs). In total, 129 providers participated in one of six focus groups, including 74 clinicians (54%) and 55 PPTMPs (42%). Reflexive thematic analysis was used to construct themes or units of meaning across data. Results: Focus groups revealed concerns about PPE shortages, telemedicine challenges, communication barriers, and profession-specific responses to COVID-19, which hindered patient care and referrals. Focus groups also highlighted some advantages related to increased insight into patients' lives, which enhanced treatment. Care during COVID-19 has resulted in continued patient interest in telehealth and telemedicine. Conclusion: Optimizing use of these technologies for health conditions, such as back pain, adds to treatment options for patients and gives providers a more holistic understanding of patients' lives, the challenges they may face, and how that impacts their treatment.

Caring by default: experiences of caregivers of children with developmental disabilities in Ghana mirrored in the context of the stress process model

BackgroundCaring for a child with developmental disabilities (DD) is associated with significant stress and burden. Caregivers’ experiences are influenced by factors such as poverty, stigma, and the lack of accessibility to services, equipment, and assistive devices. These factors are prevalent in a low-resource setting like Ghana which ultimately influences the experiences of caregivers. The aim of the study was to explore the experiences of caregivers of children with DD in the context of the Stress Process Model.MethodsThe study employed a descriptive phenomenological design Caregivers of children with DD attending the Neurodevelopmental Clinic of a Teaching Hospital were purposively sampled. Data collection involved semi-structured interviews, reaching saturation with 14 participants. The interviews were audio-recorded transcribed verbatim and analysed using thematic analysis.ResultsFour main themes emerged: perception of caregiving, stressors faced by caregivers, negative health outcomes and coping strategies. Perception of caregiving had two sub-themes as stressful nature of caregiving and time-consuming. Six sub-themes were linked to stressors faced by caregivers: the child’s ADL needs, communication barrier, managing challenging behaviour, child’s health needs, unmet educational needs, and economic burden. Negative health outcomes had three sub-themes: decline in physical, mental and social well-being. While some caregivers used maladaptive coping strategies like blaming, others employed adaptive coping strategies like religious coping through prayer, self-encouragement and support from other family members.ConclusionThe study highlights the complex interaction between caregivers’ perception of their caregiving situation, the stressors they experience, their coping resources, and the negative health outcomes associated with caregiving. These findings underscore the need for context-specific caregiver programmes to mitigate the negative impacts of caregiving.

A framework for leadership practices and communication in the context of the construction sector

An ongoing debate in the leadership domain underscores the prevalence of project failures globally, prompting project managers to refine leadership strategies and create innovative practices to navigate project complexities, emerging technologies, artificial intelligence, evolving stakeholder expectations, shifting construction landscape, and brittle, anxious, nonlinear and incompressible environment challenges in the construction industry. This study aims to provide insights into the relationship mechanisms between leadership practices, communication, and project success, introducing a framework for behavioral practices to address challenges in the Australian construction industry, such as project complexities, inefficiencies, cash flow disruptions, supply chain issues, communication barriers, cultural diversity, digitalization, and regulatory protocols compliance. Exploratory factors/multivariate regression analysis on collected responses on 66 projects have identified four critical success factors: relationship management, communication effectiveness, leading by example, and self-management that impact and improve project success significantly using relationship and conflict management as mediators, help formulate creative practices using stakeholder analysis, conflict resolution strategies, and promoting collaboration enhancing the decision-making process to overcome challenges. Researchers validated and confirmed results through in-depth interviews with independent practitioners, encouraging project managers to modify behavioral practices using an explicit model for enhancing project success.

Culturally responsive care in haemodialysis: A scoping review.

To describe how clinicians provide culturally responsive care to culturally diverse people with kidney failure in haemodialysis centres. Culturally diverse individuals receiving in-centre maintenance haemodialysis have unique cultural needs. Unmet cultural needs can impair and profoundly affect their experiences. Given culturally responsive care has the potential to enhance the experiences of culturally diverse people, it is vital to understand how clinicians provide culturally responsive care. A scoping review was undertaken using Arksey and OMalleys framework. Five databases: Medline and CINAHL Complete (EBSCO), PsycINFO, Embase (OVID) and ProQuest Theses and Dissertation databases were searched for research literature published in English between 1990 and 2023. Narrative synthesis was used to synthesise the data. From the 17,271 records screened, 17 papers reporting 14 studies met the inclusion criteria. Narrative synthesis revealed two themes: (i) communication enablers and barriers including linguistic differences, professional and lay interpreter use; and (ii) the importance of culture, which encompassed acknowledging cultural priorities, accommodating cultural food preferences and access to cultural training. While competing priorities associated with haemodialysis may be a challenge for clinicians, recognising the significance of cultural care needs and accommodating them in care is important. Demonstrating respect towards cultural diversity and providing person-centred care by facilitating the unique cultural needs of people with kidney failure in haemodialysis is imperative. Culturally responsive care is complex and multidimensional. Individuals' cultural care needs should be acknowledged, respected, and accommodated in care. No patient or public contribution. The study protocol was registered in the Open Science Framework. https://osf.io/uv8g3.

Supporting Patients with Amputated Lower Limb in Accepting Their New Body Images by Traumatology Nurses of Central Hospital Yaoundé-Cameroon: An Exploratory Study

This study aims at exploring the role of the nurse in supporting patients with the amputated lower limb towards the acceptance of their new body images in the traumatology B unit of the Central Hospital in Yaoundé-Cameroon. The study used a qualitative exploratory design. The study population was made up of eight nurses from the traumatology unit of the central hospital in Yaoundé-Cameroon. Data were collected using a semi-structured interview guide from a purposeful sample of nurses. The saturation level determined the sample size for the study. Data were analyzed using inductive content analysis. The results obtained from this study showed that it is difficult to take care of patients with amputated lower limbs as physical support e.g. hygiene care; wound dressings, pain evaluation and care were outlined by most of the nurses as the main mode of support given to patients. Consideration should be given to non-pharmacological and less invasive surgical interventions for phantom limb pain, as they are associated with less common and less severe side effects. Active listening, reassuring patients, helping relationship and confidence were the main elements of psychological support stated by the nurses. The main challenges nurses encountered in supporting amputated patients were difficult communication and language barrier. The findings from this study proposed that there were many factors to take into account in order to be able to help patients with amputated lower limb: physical and moral pain, the psychological aspect with modification of body image, loss of self-esteem etc... The nurse must demonstrate human and relational qualities and great psychological resistance in order to effectively support the amputated patient on the physical level by providing hygiene and comfort care, dressing; and on the psychological level by questioning the patients about their difficult emotions while being available to listen in order to establish a nursing diagnosis and help the patients to cope with their difficulties.

Simulation Training in Vascular and Endovascular Surgery: A Nationwide Survey Among Surgeon Educators and Trainees in France

Vascular surgical training is evolving towards simulation-based methods to enhance skill development, ensure patient safety, and adapt to changing regulations. This study aims to investigate the utilization of simulation training among vascular surgeons in France, amidst ongoing shifts in teaching approaches and educational reforms. A national survey assessed the experiences and perceptions of vascular surgery professionals regarding simulation training. Participation was open to self-reported health professionals specialized (or specializing) in vascular surgery, including interns or fellows. Participants were recruited through various channels, and data were collected via a questionnaire covering participant characteristics, simulation experiences, and perceptions. Seventy-six participants, predominantly male (74%) took part in the survey. While 58% reported access to simulation laboratories, only 17% had organized simulation sessions 1-3 times a year, and 5% had sessions more than 10 times annually. High fidelity simulators were available in 57% of institutions, while low fidelity simulators were available in 50%. Regarding funding, 20% received financial assistance for training, predominantly from industry (18%). One-third of the participants experienced 9 or more sessions (34%), lasting between 1 and 2hours (34%), 30% expressed satisfaction with access to simulation, while 33% were dissatisfied with communication of simulation training opportunities. Despite recognizing the benefits of simulation training, its integration into vascular surgery education in France remains incomplete. Challenges such as limited access and communication barriers hinder widespread adoption. Collaborative efforts are needed to ensure uniformity and enhance the effectiveness of simulation training in vascular surgery education.

Overcoming cross-language communication barriers with speech recognition technology

The purpose of this study is to explore the use of speech recognition technology in addressing communication and language barriers between individuals from different geographical locations. Through a case study, this paper collects data from a variety of sources to demonstrate the effectiveness of speech recognition technology in enhancing cross-cultural communication. The findings show that speech recognition technology can greatly improve communication, reduce misunderstandings, and ultimately promote understanding and cooperation between individuals from different regions. This technology can help people overcome language barriers and achieve more fluent communication. In addition, speech recognition technology can improve people's productivity as it can quickly convert spoken language into written text.Speech recognition technology also has a wide range of applications in cross-cultural communication. It can be used in various fields such as business, tourism, education and healthcare. By using speech recognition technology, differences between cultures can be better understood and respected, leading to more harmonious social relationships.

Is there an intergenerational discrepancy in the comprehension and aesthetic preference regarding emoji usage? Evidence from WeChat.

Emojis are widely used on social media, blogs, and instant messaging to express users' feelings. However, in everyday interactions, the same emoji often has different interpretations and aesthetic preferences among different age groups. This can lead to communication barriers and misunderstandings. Based on social identity theory, this study uses WeChat, a social platform popular in China, to analyze intergenerational differences in emoji understanding and preferences through a questionnaire survey. The results indicate: (1) There are significant intergenerational differences in the usage habits, interpretation, and aesthetic preferences of emojis. (2) Middle-aged and elderly tend to interpret goodbye emoji symbols as simple emotional expressions, such as "goodbye" or "see you later," while younger-age groups lean towards more complex emotions and social intentions, such as "speechlessness" and "end of friendship." (3) Younger-age groups use emojis frequently and with a wide variety, whereas middle-aged and elderly groups use emojis less frequently and with limited variety. Younger individuals' aesthetic preferences for emojis lean towards humor, conflict, and narrative, whereas middle-aged and elderly groups prefer emojis with bright colors and everyday greetings typical of their generation. Based on research findings, we believe that social identity theory provides a framework for understanding how individuals establish their identities through interactions with specific social groups. This study is beneficial for identifying the comprehension and aesthetic biases in emoji usage across generations, sheds light on the broader implications of social identity theory in digital communication contexts, and promotes friendly social interactions in real-time communication applications.

A Qualitative Analysis of Barriers to Evidence-Based Care in the Prehospital Management of Patients with Suspected Acute Coronary Syndrome

Objectives Prehospital electrocardiogram (ECG) and administration of aspirin are evidence-based strategies for patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS). However, emergency medical services (EMS) compliance in patients with suspected ACS varies widely. We sought to understand the barriers to prehospital ECG acquisition and aspirin administration for patients with suspected ACS. Methods In this qualitative study, we interviewed EMS clinicians at three geographically diverse United States (U.S.)-based EMS agencies. We interviewed practicing clinicians and quality and operations leaders at these agencies. Based on the Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, and Maintenance (RE-AIM) framework, interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using a grounded qualitative approach with open coding. The Systems Engineering Initiative for Patient Safety (SEIPS) framework and a constant comparison technique were used to identify and refine themes. Results Twenty-five paramedics and 20 additional agency personnel participated. Median age was 41 (IQR: 34–51) years and 13 (29%) were female. Themes were organized using SEIPS and longitudinally through four phases of an EMS call. During the pre-arrival phase, staffing challenges, training quality, and dispatch may anchor EMS clinicians on a diagnosis. During the diagnosis and treatment phase, safety and communication barriers may take priority over care delivery. Additionally, EMS clinicians must allocate assets (e.g. whether to send an advanced life support unit) and financial resources; veteran EMS clinicians identified their experience whereas newer clinicians cited their recent education when making these decisions. Also, diagnostic uncertainty due to increasing patient complexity and atypical presentations contributed to diagnostic errors. During the response and transport phase, the scope of practice limits the use and interpretation of the ECG, with clinicians reporting that liberal use of ECG led to more rapid decision-making. Finally, in the after phase, personnel reported the “psychologically taxing” nature of the job contributing to biases, bad habits, and burnout. Performance feedback was desired for personal development, though currently perceived as infrequent and punitive. Conclusions Multiple, interrelated themes underscored the complexities of delivering evidence-based care to prehospital patients with ACS. Education in ECG interpretation, resource allocation, bias, and enhancing feedback may serve as strategies to address the identified barriers.

Knowledge uptake from lived experience regarding sustainable groundwater management: complementing scientific knowledge in urban policymaking

Urbanization can pose water management challenges in cities while overlooking the possibilities of residents’ lived experience and collaborative action learning. We show how the conceptual model of the Lived Experience of Sustainable Urban Groundwater Level identifies several aspects of local knowledge development through an ex-post case study in Rotterdam’s Flower Neighbourhood (The Netherlands), where too low groundwater levels threaten house foundations. Three types of local knowledge development emerged: (i) performing and monitoring well measurements by residents, (ii) environment-specific insights collected by residents and shared with civil servants, and (iii) collaboration on groundwater management experiments, resulting in empirical groundwater data. Overcoming communication barriers, trust issues, and power dynamics are crucial for effectively retrieving and integrating lived experience into collective learning for urban sustainable development.

Analysis of The Effectiveness of Spelling Puzzle Media for Mastering The Vocabulary of Autism Children

Autistic students experience barriers in communication. These barriers make it difficult for students to understand two-way communication due to their lack of vocabulary. Increasing the number of vocabulary is delivered using spelling puzzle media. The aim of this research is to analyze the effectiveness of spelling puzzle media to increase understanding of the vocabulary of autistic children. The method used in this research is pre-experimental with a one group pretest-posttest design. The subjects of this research were 6 Autistic class I students at SLB 1 Gondang Tulungagung. The students' pretest and posttest results were analyzed based on the gain score criteria, showing a score of 0.7 which was in the medium criteria. These criteria show an increase in the number of students' vocabulary after learning using spelling puzzle media.

Identifying communication barriers between nurses and patients from the perspective of Iranian nurses: a Q-methodology-based study

BackgroundEffective communication is essential for high-quality healthcare, yet barriers often impede meaningful connection between nurses and patients. This study aimed to prioritize communication barriers between nurses and patients in Iranian hospitals, exploring nurses’ perspectives.MethodsThirty-one nurses participated in a six-step Q methodology study to identify different perspectives on communication barriers. Participants sorted a set of statements based on their own experiences and beliefs.ResultsThe average age of participants was 38.07 (SD = 6.49), with 70% being women. Four distinct factors emerged, explaining 47% of the total variance in perspectives: Organizational factors and work conditions (20%), Emotional distress and psychological barriers (11%), Lack of mutual understanding and awareness (7%), and declining professional motivation and engagement among nurses (9%).ConclusionThese findings highlight the multi-faceted nature of communication barriers between nurses and patients in this context. Interventions should address organizational factors, emotional well-being of nurses, cultural awareness, and professional motivation to improve communication and ultimately, patient care. This study provides valuable insights for Iran and other developing countries that are facing similar challenges.

Development of Indonesian Association of People with Disabilities (PPDI) Volunteers Based on Digital Applications to Increase Deaf Interaction

Background: Effective communication is essential for everyone, but it can be especially difficult for those who are deaf or hard of hearing. This can lead to isolation and hinder their ability to express themselves. Unfortunately, many people, including volunteers from PPDI North Sumatra, lack sign language skills, creating a communication barrier with the deaf community. Contribution: This activity aims to develop and assist Regional Representative Council PPDI North Sumatra volunteers to increase interaction with the deaf at Regional Representative Council PPDI North Sumatra Method: PPDI volunteers participated in program socialization, learned PIKU application features, and received training on its use. Results: The PIKU program yielded positive outcomes. Volunteer participation was enthusiastic, and interaction with the deaf community increased. The app's free accessibility, user-friendly interface, and clear visuals facilitated communication. Conclusion: The PIKU program, with its communication-assistive technology, effectively improved interaction between PPDI volunteers and the deaf community in North Sumatra. This highlights the potential of technology to break down communication barriers and foster inclusivity

Pedagogical sentiment analysis based on the BERT-CNN-BiGRU-attention model in the context of intercultural communication barriers.

Amid the wave of globalization, the phenomenon of cultural amalgamation has surged in frequency, bringing to the fore the heightened prominence of challenges inherent in cross-cultural communication. To address these challenges, contemporary research has shifted its focus to human-computer dialogue. Especially in the educational paradigm of human-computer dialogue, analysing emotion recognition in user dialogues is particularly important. Accurately identify and understand users' emotional tendencies and the efficiency and experience of human-computer interaction and play. This study aims to improve the capability of language emotion recognition in human-computer dialogue. It proposes a hybrid model (BCBA) based on bidirectional encoder representations from transformers (BERT), convolutional neural networks (CNN), bidirectional gated recurrent units (BiGRU), and the attention mechanism. This model leverages the BERT model to extract semantic and syntactic features from the text. Simultaneously, it integrates CNN and BiGRU networks to delve deeper into textual features, enhancing the model's proficiency in nuanced sentiment recognition. Furthermore, by introducing the attention mechanism, the model can assign different weights to words based on their emotional tendencies. This enables it to prioritize words with discernible emotional inclinations for more precise sentiment analysis. The BCBA model has achieved remarkable results in emotion recognition and classification tasks through experimental validation on two datasets. The model has significantly improved both accuracy and F1 scores, with an average accuracy of 0.84 and an average F1 score of 0.8. The confusion matrix analysis reveals a minimal classification error rate for this model. Additionally, as the number of iterations increases, the model's recall rate stabilizes at approximately 0.7. This accomplishment demonstrates the model's robust capabilities in semantic understanding and sentiment analysis and showcases its advantages in handling emotional characteristics in language expressions within a cross-cultural context. The BCBA model proposed in this study provides effective technical support for emotion recognition in human-computer dialogue, which is of great significance for building more intelligent and user-friendly human-computer interaction systems. In the future, we will continue to optimize the model's structure, improve its capability in handling complex emotions and cross-lingual emotion recognition, and explore applying the model to more practical scenarios to further promote the development and application of human-computer dialogue technology.

Migrant and refugee communities strengthening disaster resilience

This paper presents insights from a community-led initiative in South Australia aimed at enhancing disaster resilience in culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) migrant and refugee communities. Anchored in the principles of community cohesion, empowerment and informed action, the project addresses socio-cultural dynamics and communication barriers. A series of workshops and forums, tailored to account for cultural sensitivity, showed strengthened community collaboration, skills development and increased awareness of the psychosocial effects of disasters, prompting proactive strategies that consider the unique vulnerabilities and strengths of CALD communities. Participant testimonials noted increased community spirit and practical application of acquired knowledge, including understanding local hazard risk profiles and trust-building with emergency services organisations. The findings demonstrate the importance of mitigating access challenges, integrating diverse community perspectives into resilience- building activities and ensuring the inclusivity of management policies. Highlighting the significance of strengths-based community-driven approaches in emergency and disaster management, particularly for marginalised groups, this initiative found that engaging communities as active contributors enables more resilient and self-efficacious populations that effectively bridge cultural and linguistic gaps in preparedness.

Prevalence of Anxiety and Depression among Wives of Men Working or Living Abroad from Sylhet: Exploring Impact on Mental Health

This article finds out the prevalence of anxiety and depression among women whose husbands work abroad and also explores the significance of consequential impact on their mental health imposed by the situation as compared to those who live with their husbands. Based on a comprehensive analysis of relevant literature and empirical studies, the research sheds light on the implied challenges faced by these women, considering factors such as separation, communication barriers, and social support. The results showed significant differences between the study and the control groups. The prevalence of anxiety and depression among the study group was 51.2% and 44.1% and the average anxiety and depression score were 19.82 and 21.24 respectively. The combined odds ratio (OR) for anxiety and/or depression between the study and control groups was 9.87 with a 95% confidence interval of [5.49, 17.86] and a chi-squire test p-value <0.001.The findings are important as they may contribute to a deeper understanding of the mental health implications in this specific demographic, providing valuable insights for healthcare professionals, policymakers, and support networks.

Participative leadership, cultural factors, and speaking-up behaviour: An examination of intra-organisational knowledge sharing

This study examines the influence of participative leadership and cultural factors on employees’ speaking-up behaviour and knowledge-sharing in supplier development initiatives in the garment industry. Specifically, this study investigates the impact of leadership effectiveness, cultural dimensions, and individual characteristics using surveys and interviews. Our findings indicate that participative leadership positively correlates with employee speaking-up behaviour. However, the analysis of variance (ANOVA) results show that language proficiency and region significantly influence employees’ willingness to speak up, although the differences in knowledge-sharing scores across cultural groups are statistically insignificant. Mediation analysis further reveals that perceived leadership effectiveness partially mediates the relationship between participatory leadership and knowledge-sharing intentions. The interview findings provide deeper insights into the roles of cultural intelligence, communication barriers, and social identity in shaping knowledge flow. These findings offer practical implications for organisations seeking to enhance supplier development initiatives. To foster an inclusive environment that empowers employee voice and encourages collaborative knowledge sharing, organisations can adopt participative leadership, accommodate cultural and linguistic diversity, and promote effective leadership perceptions. We anticipate that future research will explore the generalisability of these findings across industries and examine additional cultural dimensions that influence knowledge-sharing dynamics.

Grief and bereavement support amidst palliative care in the paediatric intensive care unit

ABSTRACT In paediatric intensive care units (PICUs), advanced medical care meets deeply emotional human experiences. This review examines grief and bereavement support in PICUs, emphasising its significance in extending palliative care beyond end-of-life scenarios. A comprehensive literature search of PubMed and Google Scholar from 2014 to 2023 yielded 50 relevant studies. The findings illustrate the unique challenges in PICUs, such as children’s limited communication abilities, parental distress and emotional burden on healthcare providers. Our review revealed the multifaceted nature of grief in PICUs, including anticipatory and complicated grief, and its profound impact on families and siblings of PICU patients. We identified diverse emotional, psychological, cultural and spiritual support needs that underscored the importance of continuous bereavement care and access to resources. Current support practices, including counselling, support groups, memorial services and interdisciplinary teamwork, are explored. Challenges such as resource limitations, healthcare providers’ emotional toll and communication barriers are discussed. The study also highlights emerging trends such as digital tools, innovative therapies and policy changes to enhance holistic, family-centred care in PICUs.