Caregiver preferences for palliative care in pediatric oncology: an educational intervention

ABSTRACT

Pediatric Palliative Care (PPC) teams provide comprehensive care to children and families managing chronic illness. Misconceptions about PPC may account for low utilization. This study examined the influence of an educational handout on caregiver knowledge and preferences for PPC. Forty pediatric oncology caregivers were recruited for the pre/post design study. Mean changes from pre- to post-intervention were examined. At posttest, caregivers were significantly more knowledgeable (p < .001, d = −1.60) and had more favorable preferences toward PPC (p < .001, d = −0.52). Thus, a brief and low-cost educational intervention can improve caregiver knowledge of and opinions regarding PPC.

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the clinic staff who facilitated data collection and the families who took part in this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data availability statement

The database for this study is currently stored using RedCap data management software. It is not openly available at this time.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/02739615.2023.2199161.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.