In the pediatric intensive care unit, the difficult decision to forgo life-sustaining treatment
must sometimes be made. The ICU doctors, the social worker, pastoral care, RTs… they all …

End-of-life care (EOLC) is an often misunderstood concept by both physicians and hospital
administrators. It is an essential component of the continuum of care and can make the …

The intensivist tells the ED physician that she will be down, but at that moment, she receives
another call on the transport phone. The Transport Team is going across town to one of the …

Most deaths in the pediatric intensive care unit occur after a decision to withhold or withdraw
life-sustaining treatments. The management of children at the end of life can be divided into …

Robbie is a 9-year-old boy with metastatic osteosarcoma, recently found to have significant
disease progression with bilateral pulmonary involvement and diffuse bony pain. When his …

The ICU team gathers for their morning rounds. One of their patients died the day before.
The team members look at the room where the patient had been; perhaps it is empty, or …

Periods of transition are difficult. The transition involved in redefining the goals of therapy for
a child who is dying is an emotional time for parents and professionals alike. Often, the end …

In the United States, most children die in hospitals, typically in a critical care setting [1, 2]
About 55,000 children die each year in America, more than half of them in the first year of life …

One of the most difficult aspects of pediatric nursing is coping with the death of a child. For
nurses working in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU), end-of-life care (EOLC) and …

Until recently, an intensive care unit (ICU) stay was deemed successful if a patient survived
to go to the ward. Practitioners in neonatal medicine have always been concerned with the …