Pediatric Palliative Care: A Conceptual Analysis for Pediatric Nursing practice

Although there have been significant advances in medical technology, thousands of children continue to die annually. Pediatric palliative care is a relatively new field and has not been well defined in the literature. Therefore, the purposes of this article were to provide a concept analysis of pediatric palliative care that presents pediatric nurses with fundamental information regarding this concept and to increase their ability to understand, identify, provide, and subsequently meet and enhance the needs of those children with a life-limiting illness and their families. With this enhanced understanding of pediatric palliative care, pediatric nurses will continue to improve and provide quality, safe nursing care for this vulnerable population of children with life-limiting illnesses. (C) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.