Background: Paediatric nurses and paediatricians face di cult decisions when treating children with life-threatening and life-limiting diseases. Making decisions about whether to provide or withdraw life-sustaining treatment from seriously ill children involves challenges on a human and medical level, for the healthcare personnel as well as for the families. Objective:The study aimed to examine the decision-making experiences of paediatric nurses and paediatricians when deliberating whether to end lifesustaining treatment.Method: Our chosen method involved the use of a qualitative design and a focus group interview. The analysis was conducted after systematic text condensation. Eight paediatric nurses and paediatricians with clinical experience from paediatric wards took part in the study. Results:The ndings show that end-of-life decision-making is extremely challenging for healthcare personnel. The main ndings were categorised in three coded groups: 1) Good decision-making processes, 2) The child's understanding and decision-making involvement, and 3) Focus on the best interests of the child. Conclusion:Ensuring continuity and setting up patient care teams were highlighted as important ways of securing a good decision-making process. Good communication and liaison between families and healthcare personnel were important factors in bringing about good decision-making processes that put the child's best interest rst. The ndings show that the child's right to autonomy and decision-making involvement is often not heeded, and that children are only engaged in the decision-making to a very limited extent. Due to medical developments, healthcare personnel found it increasingly challenging to judge what is in the child's best interest. The child is the patient. It is therefore essential that all decisions about the child's treatment are made in the best interest of the child.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.