(323) Bereavement, Palliative, and End-of-Life Education Needs Assessment

Introduction: Nationally, over 45,000 children die each year with nearly 75% of those dying in hospitals and 80% of hospital deaths occurring in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU). CHRISTUS Children’s is among an estimated 20% of children’s hospitals that does not have a dedicated palliative care team or formal training requirements for faculty and staff members. The CHRISTUS Children’s PICU team members had ongoing conversations regarding the desire for formal education opportunities for staff at all levels. We chose to model our curriculum based on Pediatric Palliative and End-of-Life Care (EPEC); a formal curriculum meant to develop interdisciplinary learners in bereavement, palliative care, and end-of-life (BPEOL) from across the medical field and is adaptable.

Methods: A needs assessment was distributed throughout CHRISUS Children’s to evaluate interest, topics, limitations to attendance, preferred learning styles, and comfort with various aspects of death and dying. Within two weeks, we received 97 responses indicating a high need for education on this important topic. The needs assessment was developed through review of the EPEC curriculum and conversations with the PICU.

Results: Sixty-seven percent of respondents stated they had no training in delivering prognoses to family. Sixty-two percent of respondents stated they felt unprepared discussing postmortem plans with families. Sixty percent stated they were uncomfortable with the process of withdrawal, and nearly 50% stated they felt uncomfortable or unprepared to discuss physical findings of death and end of life to families. Forty percent of respondents were specifically interested in a simulation of how to have these difficult conversations with families. A need for discussion around staff care after the death of a patient was further identified, 52% of respondents requested a session on this topic.

Conclusions: Secondary to the need for a formal PBEOL curriculum, CHRISTUS Children’s in partnership with Baylor College of Medicine, is committed to presenting a novel education opportunity for staff members to increase their comfort and knowledge surrounding this important topic. Based on the previous success of prior EPEC training, we will utilize the EPEC training course to target our curriculum related to our needs assessment.