2020 Volume 57 Issue 3 Pages 275-280
Recently, the number of home-visit nursing stations for children has been increasing, and it has become possible to provide home-based end-of-life care for pediatric cancer patients. In this study, we aimed to identify the problems of end-of-life care in our department. We conducted a retrospective review of end-of-life care of 16 pediatric cancer patients in our department from November 2011 to October 2019. Furthermore, we administered a questionnaire to 89 home-visit nursing stations to examine the status and issues of home-visit nursing for end-of-life pediatric care. The median end-of-life period at home before 2016 was 16 days, but after 2016, it increased to 149 days because of home-visit nursing interventions. In the questionnaire survey, 60% of home-visit nursing stations indicated that they would conditionally accept pediatric cancer patients requiring end-of-life care. Lack of knowledge regarding pediatric nursing, difficulties in communicating with patients and their families, and difficulties in understanding the patient’s medical conditions were identified as problems. Visiting nurses answered that cooperation with hospitals was important for them to be able to accept more pediatric cancer patients. It is expected that the home-stay period will be extended because home medical care staff can provide some medical procedures. In the future, we will strengthen cooperation with community healthcare professionals through activities such as holding educational workshops and we will develop specific cooperation methods.
