Foundational Pediatric Training in Palliative Care – Easing Suffering

Foundational Concepts in Easing Suffering and Promoting Healing for Pediatric Patients

This 8 CE hour, self-paced online course equips hospice and palliative care professionals to recognize and address the emotional, psychosocial, and spiritual suffering of children, teens, and young adults nearing end of life and their families. It explores how acknowledging and bearing witness to suffering can be redemptive and healing for the child, family, and clinician.

Why Take This Course?

Caring for children nearing death and their families requires enhanced skills in recognizing and addressing emotional, psychosocial, and spiritual suffering. Supporting children and their families through this difficult journey can empower them in making quality-of-life decisions, creating legacy, and processing ongoing grief.

This course prepares hospice and palliative care professionals to be present and acknowledge suffering in young patients and their families; recognize types of suffering; assess anticipatory grief; support parents in talking with their children; assess spiritual suffering; support families with conflicting beliefs; and find purpose connected to meaning-making.

This course can be taken on its own or as part of these comprehensive programs:

• Certificate in Clinical Pediatric Palliative Care – 66 CEs
• Multidisciplinary Certificate in Pediatric Palliative Care – 37.5 CEs

 Who Should Take This Course?

This course is ideal for RNs, NPs, APRNs, physicians, physician assistants, social workers, chaplains and other members of hospice, palliative care, or home health teams who work with pediatric patients and families and/or want to specialize in pediatric palliative care. It builds on concepts explored in Basic Concepts in Easing Suffering and Promoting Healing for Pediatric Patients.

Course Information

Fast Facts

Begins:	Immediately upon registration
Is taught:	Completely online and is available 24/7
Offers:	8 Continuing Education Hours
Costs:	$109
Requires:	Computing skills sufficient to complete graduate work, access to a computer with an Internet connection
Is ideal for:	Nurse Practitioners, APRNS, RNs, physicians, physician assistants, social workers, chaplains and other members of the hospice, palliative care or home health team who have some experience working with seriously ill pediatric patients and their families
Cancellation Policy:	There are no refunds on our self-paced courses

Course Description

This course comprises eight modules that prepare hospice and palliative care professionals to address the ongoing existential and spiritual suffering of young patients with life-limiting illness and their families.

Modules and topics include:

Acknowledging the Presence of Suffering – Ability to be Present

This module prepares learners to:

• Evaluate existing skills related to working within the context of suffering and apply them to caring for pediatric patients and their families
• Demonstrate methods for acknowledging suffering and examining its redemptive value
• Identify key elements for providing therapeutic support in the presence of suffering
• And more

Anticipatory Grieving

By the end of this module, learners will be able to:

• Define types of grief in the context of the pediatric patient and family and illustrate how they may impact the approach to care
• Demonstrate an understanding of the complex dynamics of anticipatory grief and apply therapeutic principles to the anticipatory grief assessment
• Describe the dynamics of chronic grief and demonstrate an understanding of the impact of living with perpetual uncertainty on patients and families
• And more

Supporting Parents in Talking to Their Children

This module equips learners to:

• Assess parent perceptions about sharing information with the child and describe strategies for providing therapeutic support
• Identify methods to help the family define barriers and demonstrate an understanding of principles that support effective parent-child communication
• Evaluate the needs of all members of the family unit and illustrate techniques for providing support
• And more

Spirituality

This module covers:

• Tools and techniques used to conduct a spiritual assessment of the patient, parents, and siblings
• How to create an age-appropriate plan of care to support the spiritual care needs of the child
• How to assess for the presence of conflicting spiritual beliefs within the family unit and formulate an approach that recognizes and honors them

Finding Purpose in Each of the Steps is the Thread for All Decisions – Creating Meaning

By the end of this module, learners will be able to:

• Define legacy and demonstrate how it applies to working with pediatric patients at end of life and their families
• Illustrate methods for helping patients and families create legacy
• Understand the difference between happiness and meaning
• List techniques patients and families can use to document and honor meaning

Evolving Creation of Legacy

This module prepares learners to:

• Demonstrate an understanding of the unique nature of perceptions about legacy and how they may differ within the family unit
• Assess individual patient and family needs regarding the creation of legacy and integrate them into the plan of care
• Describe options for creating keepsakes in the context of supporting patient and family needs regarding legacy

Supporting Patient and Family Empowerment

This module equips learners to:

• Demonstrate an understanding of the complex dynamics involved with having a child who is seriously ill and use an approach that supports the role of parents
• Assess patient and family perceptions and needs regarding quality of life versus quantity of life
• Employ an approach to care that empowers the patient and family as active participants on the care team
• Discuss common aspects of care that may be anticipated and apply an approach that supports patient and family empowerment
• And more

Bereavement Support

By the end of this module, learners will be able to:

• Demonstrate an understanding of the chronic nature of grief for those impacted by the illness and death of a child
• Assess bereavement support needs of parents and other adult family members and apply recommended methods for providing support
• Differentiate the unique bereavement needs of children and use age-appropriate techniques to provide support
• Illustrate ways for loved ones to create remembrances and helpful rituals
• And more

STRATEGIC PARTNERS

The Institute’s Pediatric Palliative Care curriculum was developed by expert clinicians in pediatric palliative care from leading children’s hospitals and hospice programs, with support from:

• Children’s Hospice and Palliative Care Coalition/Coalition for Compassionate Care of California
• Providence TrinityCare Hospice and Trinity KidsCare

COURSE AUTHOR

Susan Montgomery, RN, BSN, MA, a registered nurse for more than 35 years, caring for infants and children in the neonatal ICU, the pediatric ICU, and in pediatric hospice.

COURSE REVIEWERS

Rev. Kathleen Ennis-Durstine, MDiv, BCC, Senior Chaplain/Manager, Children’s National Health System, and faculty member of the Pediatric Chaplains Institute.

Rev. Mark Bartel, MDiv, BCC, Chaplain Manager, Spiritual Care, Arnold Palmer Medical Center, Orlando Health, and faculty member of the Pediatric Chaplains Institute.

Course Information