Foundational Pediatric Palliative Care Pain and Symptom Management

Foundational Pediatric Pain and Symptom Assessment and Management

This 7 CE hour self-paced online course provides evidence-based clinical strategies for assessing and managing pain in infants, children, teens, and young adults with serious illness. It explores assessment tools and how to apply them to seriously ill children; pediatric medication management and dosing guidelines; strategies for managing common symptoms; non-pharmacological interventions; and pain-management challenges with functionally impaired children.

Why Take This Course?

Assessing and managing pain is a cornerstone of high quality palliative care. Providing safe and effective care to children requires that clinicians understand pediatric pain assessment methods; use appropriate pain assessment tools; engage parents and patients, who are experts in their own care; and use appropriate dosing based on the child’s weight and other factors.

This course provides a thorough understanding of effective assessment and pain-management strategies in pediatric patients, pediatric medication management principles, non-pharmacological interventions, and more.

This course can be taken on its own or as part of the Certificate in Clinical Pediatric Palliative Care – 66 CEs

 Who Should Take This Course?

This course is for hospice, palliative care and/or home health teams and clinicians – including physicians, NPs, APRNS, and PAs – who already have some experience caring for pediatric patients and families. It builds on concepts explored in Basic Pediatric Pain and Symptom Assessment and Management.

Course Information

Fast Facts

Begins:	Immediately upon registration
Is taught:	Completely online and is available 24/7
Offers:	7 Continuing Education Hours
Costs:	$99
Requires:	Computing skills sufficient to complete graduate work, access to a computer with an Internet connection
Is ideal for:	Nurse Practitioners, APRNS, RNs, physicians, PAs and other clinicians on the hospice, palliative care, or home health team
Cancellation Policy:	There are no refunds on our self-paced courses

Course Description

This course comprises seven modules that prepare clinicians to accurately assess pain in infants, children, teens, and young adults, and to effectively manage pain through medication, non-pharmacological approaches, and other strategies.

Courses include:  

Assessing Patient and Family Current and Historical Experience with Diagnosis and Treatment

This module equips learners to:

• Recognize the critical role of parents in the care of pediatric patients
• Create a plan of care that validates and integrates their expertise
• Assess patient and family communication needs
• Formulate a framework that supports effective communication
• Demonstrate an interdisciplinary approach to establishing goals of care for pain and symptom management in collaboration with the patient and family

Conducting an Effective Pediatric Assessment

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

• Identify unique factors associated with assessing the pediatric patient who is receiving palliative care
• Apply appropriate techniques to ensure a comprehensive and age-appropriate approach that integrates individual patient needs
• Demonstrate an understanding of differences in assessing children of different ages and normal age-related readings
• Employ a collaborative approach with parents and other providers to apply assessment techniques that are specific to the needs of the child
• Identify specific conditions that children with complex medical needs and severe neurological impairment often experience

Pediatric Medication Management

This module prepares learners to:

• Demonstrate an understanding of pediatric medication management principles
• Use dosing guidelines for specific symptoms to ensure safe and optimal care
• List certain medications that should be avoided in children
• Describe common routes of medication administration in the pediatric patient
• Assess each patient’s needs regarding communication about medication administration and integrate them into medication planning
• Evaluate patient and family perceptions regarding opioid use and create a plan for addressing concerns, including the potential for opioid diversion

Pain (Assess and Treat)

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

• Demonstrate an understanding of pain assessment methods in the pediatric patient
• Choose effective pain assessment tools
• Identify indications of pain in the non-verbal pediatric patient
• Apply pain management principles to better understand the dynamics of pain and pain management
• Demonstrate an understanding of the influence of the parent-child relationship on the reporting of pain
• Create a plan to address potential diversion behaviors, if needed

Common Symptoms (Assess and Treat)

This module equips learners to:

• Summarize principles for managing common symptoms in the pediatric patient
• Apply symptom management principles to the plan of care
• List common symptoms that pediatric patients may experience
• Assess for the presence of common symptoms
• Utilize recommended clinical guidelines to formulate a treatment plan
• Examine various tools and resources that can support the management of common symptoms in the pediatric patient

Non-Pharmacological Treatment

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

• Demonstrate an understanding of the role of non-pharmacological treatments in pain and symptom management in the pediatric patient
• Describe the use of various types of non-pharmacological treatments to the patient and family and illustrate the value they can provide
• Assess the effectiveness of non-pharmacological treatments as they are integrated into the plan of care

Caring for the Child who is Medically Complex

This module prepares learners to:

• Identify common functional impairments experienced by medically complex patients
• Describe the impact of functional impairments on care and quality of life
• Demonstrate an understanding of the role of touch and other healing therapies that may benefit the medically complex patient
• Assess the effectiveness of alternative therapies as they are integrated into the plan of care

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 AUTHORS

Kimberly Bower, MD, FAAHPM, HMDC, former Chief of Palliative Medicine at Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego and current Medical Director of Blue Shield of California Promise Plan.

Susan Montgomery, RN, BSN, MA, a medical writer whose clinical career as a registered nurse included caring for children and adults in both critical care and hospice. She is the former Director of Interdisciplinary Practice at Suncoast Hospice.

Course Information