Using web-based training to optimize pediatric palliative care knowledge transfer

Abstract

Nurses play a central role in delivering palliative care, given their influence on the quality of care provided (Montgomery, Sawin, & Hendricks-Ferguson, 2016). They are professionals of choice when it comes to assessing disease symptoms or psychological distress, ensuring symptoms are managed effectively, as well as accompanying patients and families through the decision-making process regarding both adult and pediatric care (Contro, Larson, Scofield, Sourkes, & Cohen, 2004). Optimal palliative care practices can prevent or alleviate the suffering of patients of all ages at the end of life, particularly if the care includes the assessment of symptoms and provides the patient and his or her family with psychological and social support (Qaseem et al., 2008). Although the majority of patients receiving palliative care are adults, more than 4,000 children in Canada have an incurable disease for which they will require quality palliative care (Widger, Cadell, Davies, Siden, & Steele, 2012). However, a number of studies carried out with nurses have revealed that they experience anxiety with regard to the pediatric palliative care (PPC) they deliver (Mullen, Reynolds, & Larson, 2015) and difficulties communicating with families of patients (Montgomery et al., 2017), as well as managing their emotions when they attend to a child who is at the end of life (Roberts & Boyle, 2005). Based on the first hypothesis suggested by Contro et al. (2004), such behaviour can be explained by a lack of knowledge regarding PPC.