title: End-of-life care in a children's hospice program.
abstract: A project was completed in 1999 to evaluate the Canuck Place children's hospice program. This article reports only on the end-of-life care component. Results are provided from mail-out surveys with families who required end-of-life care and are supplemented by qualitative data which were collected from interviews with individuals prior to the survey. Eighteen families completed face-to-face interviews and another 70 families completed the mail-out questionnaire developed from the initial interviews. A total of 39 parents responded to the survey section about end-of-life care services. Results indicated that parents were reasonably comfortable discussing death with staff; they generally felt well prepared for their child's death because of the staff; the death of another child had a significant effect on families; parents' wishes at the time of their child's death were very supported by staff; and families were well supported by staff at the time of a child's death. Implications for practice and suggestions for future research are discussed.
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing, Atkinson Faculty of Liberal & Professional Studies, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Rose
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Steele
authors.forename: Betty
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Davies
authors.forename: John B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Collins
authors.forename: Karen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Cook
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D002648:Child; D002662:Child Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D005190:Family / Q000523:psychology*; D017051:Hospice Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D009864:Ontario; D011368:Professional-Family Relations; D015397:Program Evaluation; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013727:Terminal Care