Barriers to Pediatric Palliative Care Examined

Pallimed reviewed a recent article from the journal Pediatrics on how health care providers perceived barriers to palliative care. The researchers surveyed 689 health staff at UCSF Children's Hospital (117 nurses, 81 physicians, and 42 staff from a variety of other disciplines responded.) The top two barriers identified by staff were, first, uncertain prognosis and second, family not ready to acknowledge incurable condition. Pallimed's Christian Sinclair, MD, points out that, "These two reasons are intimately related and are joined by the skill to adequately communicate medical information, probabilities and uncertainties, and the ability (for staff and patient/family) to hold out for hope but accept the probability of decline."