A model program for perinatal palliative services.
Despite the fact that parents of infants with lethal anomalies may not want "full-blown" medical care for their infants after birth, most such infants die in neonatal intensive care units. Although neonatal nurses are trained to administer life-saving treatments, they may suffer from moral distress when faced with caring for babies with incompatible-with-life conditions. This article describes a Perinatal Comfort Care program in which (a) care is provided at the time of diagnoses/antenatally and includes home visits by members of an interdisciplinary hospice team; (b) care is collaborative, community-based, and family-centered, and takes place in labor and delivery and on the mother baby unit; and (c) follow-up to the family continues for 1 year after the death. Neonatal nurses can become involved either by initiating efforts to form a perinatal comfort care program or by joining an existing team.
St Joseph Hospice, St Joseph Perinatal Comfort Care, St Joseph Hospital, Orange, California 92863, USA.
Suzanne
S
Engelder
Kathryn
K
Davies
Terry
T
Zeilinger
Dana
D
Rutledge
D002140:California; D017051:Hospice Care / Q000379:methods* / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D015931:Intensive Care, Neonatal; D017146:Models, Organizational; D017283:Neonatal Nursing / Q000379:methods*; D019982:Organizational Case Studies; D010166:Palliative Care / Q000379:methods* / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000523:psychology; D010348:Patient Care Team; D018802:Patient-Centered Care; D018743:Perinatal Care / Q000379:methods*; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations; D016730:Program Development; D015397:Program Evaluation; D012017:Referral and Consultation