Question 1

A school-age child is diagnosed with a life-threatening illness. The parents want to protect their child from knowing the seriousness of the illness. The nurse should provide which explanation?

Accepted Answer

The child needs honest and accurate information about the illness, treatments, and prognosis. Because of the increased attention of health professionals, children, even at a young age, realize that something is seriously wrong and that it involves them. Thus, denial is ineffective as a coping mechanism. The nurse should help parents understand the importance of honesty. Parents may need professional support and guidance from a nurse or social worker in this process. Children will usually tell others how much information they want about their condition.

Question 2

A 12-year-old child has failed several courses of chemotherapy. An experimental drug is available that his parents want him to receive. He has told his parents and the oncologists that he is ready to die and does not want any more chemotherapy. The nurse recognizes what to be true?

Accepted Answer

This is a family issue that requires support to help both parents and child resolve the conflict. Because the child has little chance of survival, many institutions support the child's right to refuse or assent to therapy. The institution can obtain a court order to support the child's decision if verified by the oncologists. Twelve-year-olds can give consent for therapy under certain conditions, including being an emancipated minor and receiving therapy for birth control and sexually transmitted infections. Right to self-determination is also accepted if the child is fully aware of the consequences of the actions. The practitioners cannot take the responsibility for decision making from the parent or child. Parents have the responsibility for decision making, but certain circumstances do limit their authority.

Question 3

At which age do most children have an adult concept of death as being inevitable, universal, and irreversible?

Accepted Answer

By age 9 or 10 years, children have an adult concept of death. They realize that it is inevitable, universal, and irreversible. Preschoolers and young school-age children are too young to have an adult concept of death. Adolescents have a mature understanding of death.

Question 4

At which developmental period do children have the most difficulty coping with death, particularly if it is their own?

Accepted Answer

Adolescents, because of their mature understanding of death, remnants of guilt and shame, and issues with deviations from normal, have the most difficulty coping with death. Toddlers and preschoolers are too young to have difficulty coping with their own death. They fear separation from their parents. School-age children fear the unknown such as the consequences of the illness and the threat to their sense of security.

Question 5

What explanation best describes how preschoolers react to the death of a loved one?

Accepted Answer

Because of egocentricity, the preschooler may feel guilty and responsible for the death. Preschoolers may need to distance themselves from the loss. Giggling or joking and regression to earlier behaviors may help them until they incorporate the loss. The preschooler's concept of death is more a special sleep or departure.

Question 6

What statement is most descriptive of a school-age child's reaction to death?

Accepted Answer

School-age children are interested in naturalistic and physiologic explanations of why death occurs and what happens to the body. School-age children do have an established concept of forever and have a deeper understanding of death in a concrete manner. Adolescents may explain death from a religious or spiritual point of view.

Question 7

What is a principle of palliative care that can be included in the care of children?

Accepted Answer

The principles of palliative care involve a multidisciplinary approach to the management of a terminal illness or the dying process that focuses on symptom control and support rather than on cure or life prolongation in the absence of the possibility of a cure. In pediatric palliative care, the focus of care is on the family. Palliative care requires the transition from curative to palliative care. The transition occurs when the likelihood of cure no longer exists. Spiritual issues are just one of the foci of palliative care. The multidisciplinary team focuses on physical, emotional, and social issues as well. Pain control is a priority in palliative care. The use of opiates is balanced with the side effects caused by this class of drugs.

Question 8

A 12-year-old boy is in the final phase of dying from leukemia. He tells the nurse who is giving him opiates for pain that his grandfather is waiting for him. How should the nurse interpret this situation?

Accepted Answer

Near the time of death, many children experience visions of "angels" or people and talk with them. The children mention that they are not afraid and that someone is waiting for them. If the child has built a tolerance to the opioids, side effects are not likely. At this time, many children do begin to comfort their families and tell them that they are not afraid and are ready to die, but the visions usually precede this stage. There is no evidence of tissue hypoxia.

Question 9

The nurse is making a home visit 48 hours after the death of an infant from sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). What intervention is an appropriate objective for this visit?

Accepted Answer

A home visit after the death of an infant is an excellent time to help the parents with the grief process. The nurse can clarify misconceptions about SIDS and provide information on support services and coping issues. Giving contraceptive information is inappropriate unless requested by parents. Telling the parents that SIDS is not likely to occur again is a false reassurance to the family. Investigating the home situation to verify SIDS as the cause of death is not the nurse's role; this would have been done by legal and social services if there were a question about the infant's death.

Question 10

When is an autopsy required?

Accepted Answer

Autopsy is usually required in cases of unexplained death, violent death, or suspected suicide. In other instances it may be optional, and parents should be informed. The cause of death is not unknown in a person with a known terminal illness, a hospice patient at home, or a victim of a motor vehicle collision. Autopsy can be requested by family, but it is not required.

Question 11

An 8-year-old girl has been uncooperative and angry since the diagnosis of cancer was made. Her parents tell the nurse that they do not know what to do "because she is always so mad at us." What nursing action is most appropriate at this time?

Accepted Answer

To school-age children, chronic illness and dying represent a loss of control. This threat to their sense of security and ego strength can be manifested by verbal uncooperativeness. The child can be viewed as impolite, insolent, and stubborn. The best intervention is to encourage children to talk about feelings and give control where possible. Verbal explanations would not be "heard" by the child. The child may not be cognizant of the anger. Ignoring the anger will not help the child gain some control over the events.

Question 12

A critically injured child has died and is being removed from a ventilator in the pediatric intensive care unit. What is a priority nursing intervention for the family at this time?

Accepted Answer

Around the time of death, nursing care can be invaluable to the parents. The nurse should attempt to control the environment to ensure that the family and child have privacy. Other individuals such as clergy can be present if the family wishes. Attention to religious and cultural rituals may be important to them. The family should decide where they would like to be during removal from the ventilator. The family should be allowed to be with the child if they wish rather than waiting until the funeral home has prepared the body. Explain all interventions used for the child before death.

Question 13

The nurse is providing support to a family that is experiencing anticipatory grief related to their child's imminent death. What statement by the nurse is therapeutic?

Accepted Answer

Acknowledging that the family has been through a very tough time validates the loss that the parents have experienced. It is nonjudgmental. After the death of a child, the parent recognizes the responsibilities to the rest of the family but needs to be able to experience the grief of the loss. Telling the parents what they should do is giving advice. The parent would not be happy that the child has died, and stating so is argumentative. The parents may be angry with God, or their religious beliefs may be unknown, so the nurse should not provide false reassurance by talking to them about God.

Question 14

The nurse is often the individual who is in the optimum position to suggest tissue donation to a family (after consultation with the practitioner). What will occur if a family chooses organ or tissue donation?

Accepted Answer

Organ and tissue donation cannot proceed without the family's written informed consent. There is usually no delay in the funeral. Organs are usually retrieved before actual death, and tissue must be removed soon after. No obvious disfigurement of the body occurs, and an open casket can be used for the funeral.

Question 15

A 7-year-old child is in the end stages of cancer. The parents ask you how they will know when death is imminent. What physical sign is indicative of approaching death?

Accepted Answer

The child begins to have difficulty swallowing as he or she approaches death. The child's appetite will decrease, and he or she will take only small bites of favorite foods or sips of fluids in the final few days. The pulse rate will slow.

Question 16

The family and child have decided that hospice care best meets their needs during the terminal phase of illness. The nurse recognizes that the parents understand the principles of this care when they make which statement?

Accepted Answer

A major principle of hospice care is that the family members are the principal caregivers and are supported by a team of professionals. Pain and symptom management is a priority. The family and visiting nurses administer medications to keep the child as pain and symptom free as possible. The hospice team provides bereavement support to help the family in the postdeath adjustment. This may last for up to a year or more. If the family decides they can no longer care for the child at home, readmission to a freestanding hospice or hospital is possible.

Question 17

A child in the terminal stage of cancer has frequent breakthrough pain. Nonpharmacologic methods are not helpful, and the child is exceeding the maximum safe dose for opiate administration. What approach should the nurse implement?

Accepted Answer

The child on long-term opioid management can become tolerant to the drugs. Also, increasing amounts of drugs may be necessary for disease progression. It is important to recognize that there is no maximum dosage that can be given to control pain. Acetaminophen will offer little additional pain control; it is useful for mild and moderate pain. Immediate hospitalization is not necessary; increased dosages of pain medications can be administered in the home environment. The principle of double effect allows for a positive intervention-relief of pain-even if there is a foreseeable possibility that death may be hastened.

Question 18

What factor is most important for parents implementing do not resuscitate (DNR) orders?

Accepted Answer

Earlier implementation of DNR orders, use of less aggressive therapies, and greater provision of palliative care measures are associated with an honest appraisal of the child's condition. Euthanasia involves an action carried out by a person other than the patient to end the life of the patient suffering from a terminal condition. DNR orders do not involve euthanasia but give permission for health care providers to allow the child to die without intervention. Parents state that regardless of the number of children they have, the death of a child is a new experience and nothing can prepare them for it. Health professionals may base their discussions with families on prior experiences, but families base their decision on an honest appraisal of their child's condition.

Question 19

What nursing intervention is most appropriate when providing comfort and support for a child when death is imminent?

Accepted Answer

When death is imminent, care should be limited to interventions for palliative care. Music may be used to provide comfort to the child. The nurse should speak to the child in a clear, distinct voice. Vital signs do not need to be measured frequently.

Question 20

A preschooler is found digging up a pet bird that was recently buried after it died. What is the best explanation for this behavior?

Accepted Answer

The preschooler can recognize that the pet has died but has difficulties with the permanence. Digging up the bird gives reassurance that the bird is still present. This is an expected response at this age. If the behavior persists, intervention may be required.

Quiz 20: Family-Centered Palliative Care