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Caring for the Child at the End-of Life

Ruth Davies

Palliative Care for Children and Families: An Interdisciplinary Approach, Pages: 172 - 191

Swansea University Author: Ruth Davies

Abstract

Despite all our best efforts children and young people still die from Life-Limiting conditions. The aim of this chapter is to discuss current service provision in relation to their end-of–life care and identify the best of evidence-based practice. The focus at this stage must be on meeting the needs...

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Published in: Palliative Care for Children and Families: An Interdisciplinary Approach
Published: 2009
URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa14056
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Abstract: Despite all our best efforts children and young people still die from Life-Limiting conditions. The aim of this chapter is to discuss current service provision in relation to their end-of–life care and identify the best of evidence-based practice. The focus at this stage must be on meeting the needs and wishes of the dying child or young person and their family and for this reason it will be shown how the ACT (2004) Care Pathway can facilitate this in practice. Having lost a much-loved teenage son to cancer, I write with personal as well as professional conviction about the importance of a ‘good death’, that is, one that is dignified and pain free. I believe this is the goal of high quality of end-of-life care, and an achievable on, but only if professionals commit to this ideal and apply a systematic evidence-based approach to care in practice. Meeting the needs and wishes of the dying child or young person as well as their family is essential if we are to achieve ‘good death’. This, in my estimation, is the Alpha and Omega of high quality end-of–life care.
Item Description: Edited by Jayne Price and Partricia McNeilly
Keywords: End- of - life care for the dying child evidence-based systematic approach
College: Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences
Start Page: 172
End Page: 191