Communication with Children and Their Families

Boucher, Suzanne; Atout, Maha; McNamara-Goodger, Katrina

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-27375-0_5

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

References 18 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Communication is pivotal for realising the holistic focus of palliative care, 12 – 14 providing the means to understand the physical, mental, social, cultural, and spiritual needs of patients and their families. 15 – 17 The urgency of caring for children with complex and serious conditions requires that care must continue during the pandemic, albeit with adjustments to service delivery. 18 , 19 To reduce the risk of infection, a greater proportion of palliative care consultations during the pandemic were reconfigured to telehealth.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The pervasive relevance of COVID-19 within routine paediatric palliative care consultations during the pandemic: A conversation analytic study

et al. 2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background: The importance of caring for children with complex and serious conditions means that paediatric palliative care must continue during pandemics. The recent pandemic of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) provides a natural experiment to study health communication during pandemic times. However, it is unknown how communication within consultations might change during pandemics. Aim: This study, a sub-study of a larger project, aimed to examine real-world instances of communication in paediatric palliative care consultations prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic to understand how clinicians and families talk about the pandemic. Design: Paediatric palliative care consultations prior to, during, and immediately following the initial peak of COVID-19 cases in Australia were video recorded and analysed using Conversation Analysis methods. Setting/participants: Twenty-five paediatric palliative care consultations (including face-to-face outpatient, telehealth outpatient and inpatient consultations) were video recorded within a public children’s hospital in Australia. Participants included 14 health professionals, 15 child patients, 23 adult family members and 5 child siblings. Results: There was a pervasive relevance of both serious and non-serious talk about COVID-19 within the consultations recorded during the pandemic. Topics typical of a standard paediatric palliative care consultation often led to discussion of the pandemic. Clinicians (55%) and parents (45%) initiated talk about the pandemic. Conclusions: Clinicians should not be surprised by the pervasiveness of COVID-19 or other pandemic talk within standard paediatric palliative care consultations. This awareness will enable clinicians to flexibly address family needs and concerns about pandemic-related matters that may impact health and wellbeing.

show abstract