Pediatric Hospice Nursing

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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

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Specializes in Med-Surg, ER, ICU, Hospice.
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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Specializes in Mental Health.

Wow, I commend you on your bravery. I don't think I could give Hospice care to a pediatric patient. :o

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my training consisted of a 3 day seminar and 12 online modules.

it wasn't my choice and i hate it.

leslie

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Specializes in ER, Hospice.

My hospice does take on pediatric patients. And, by far, they are the hardest for me personally to cope with. I have never cried so much as when leaving the home of a dying child who was very close in age to my own daughter.

I attended a weekend conference on pediatric palliative care at a university hospital in my area. However, I did not find it very educational in terms of treatment at end of life for pediatric patients. It was mainly focused on the emotional issues of the families, which is indeed quite challenging.

Good luck!

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Specializes in Hospice, Palliative Care, OB/GYN, Peds,.

Our agency will take Pediatric patients because I have many years in nursery and peds so I case manage them. We haven't had many but I recently had a 4 year old patient who passed last Wednesday. It was heart breaking and I attended his funeral Monday. You have to be a special person to be willing to care for dying children. Our orientation would take place on the Peds unit at our hospital but no one wants to do peds patients except myself. Good luck and God bless you for your willingness to care for them.

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Our agency will take Pediatric patients because I have many years in nursery and peds so I case manage them. We haven't had many but I recently had a 4 year old patient who passed last Wednesday. It was heart breaking and I attended his funeral Monday. You have to be a special person to be willing to care for dying children. Our orientation would take place on the Peds unit at our hospital but no one wants to do peds patients except myself. Good luck and God bless you for your willingness to care for them.

this past year, we just opened our peds unit.

i was assigned to take on these kids.

despite sev'l yrs of hospice work, ea peds case rips me apart.

i don't know how anyone does this willingly.

God bless you, truly.

leslie

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