Originally Posted by Fiesta Red
Our hospice organization does not currently take pediatric patients, with the cut-off being around age 18. I was talking with out manager the other day when a referral for another pediatric patient arrived. I mentioned something about this being a service we need to offer our community and she agreed. I volunteered to take pediatric patients, and she stated that it required extra training, but that she would be happy to send me to be trained. I am pretty excited about this, but do have some questions.
Has anyone here been formally trained to take pediatric patients? What did it involve? I looked this up on the internet and couldn't find too much info about this. It seems like a pretty rare specialty.
Any info would be appreciated.
Thanks!
-mark
If there is any special training available for pediatric hospice patients I would be both surprised and interested.
I was a pediatric nurse once… wa-a-a-a-ay back. Most deaths in that age group are unexpected. Very generally speaking, the very young and the very old die with more ease than those in between. The very old have lived their lives while the very young have not yet been taught the bizarre societal definitions of “life” and “death.” Those in between have not yet lived their lives but are burdened with societal views.
By way of illustration, an experienced hospice nurse once told me about a little boy who was dying. His mother, quite naturally, was devastated. One day, as she was crying, he tried to reassure her by saying, “I remember it (before he was born) mommy. It’s not so bad.”
Probably the biggest challenge in pediatric hospice is dealing with the parents.
Michael
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