Pediatric Concurrent Hospice Care: A Scoping Review and Directions for Future Nursing Research.
Lisa C Lindley, Jessica Keim-Malpass, Radion Svynarenko and 3 others
PMID 32282559WHAT IT FOUND
U.S. research on concurrent hospice care is mostly narrative and policy reports.
Fourteen articles were included, and no pediatric article evaluated outcomes. One adult cancer study reported increasing availability of concurrent care was related to less aggressive treatment and lower end-of-life costs.
Key findings
01Fourteen articles were included, and seven were narrative designs while three were case studies.
02No pediatric article evaluated outcomes of concurrent care.
03One adult cancer study found that increasing availability of concurrent care was related to less aggressive medical treatments and lower costs at end of life.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
Only fourteen articles were included, and seven were narrative designs. The review maps a small literature; it does not test concurrent hospice care. No pediatric article evaluated outcomes, so the review gives no evidence about how children did under concurrent hospice care. The one study with outcomes was in adults with cancer in Veterans Administration and Medicare settings, not in children. Most included articles were policy, ethics, legal, or implementation reports. No articles described concurrent hospice care patients, families, hospice providers, or treatment providers. The review did not identify information on how concurrent hospice care was explained to families, providers, or clinicians.
Declared interests
The supplied publication types list NIH extramural research support. No other funding or conflict-of-interest declaration is provided in the article text.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as evidence that pediatric concurrent hospice care improves child outcomes. The review found no pediatric outcome studies, and the positive adult finding came from one observational cancer study.