Paediatric Hospice Palliative Care Course

Presented on our experience to a group attending day 1 of a Paediatric Hospice Palliative Care course offered by Sickkids staff Maria Rugg and Dr Christine Newman. I looked at how we differed as a couple in our desire to speak to palliative care and how we ultimately deflected palliative care for several months as Sasha was slowly diminishing. Staff may need to give some parents permission to consider that their child is dying as they certainly give parent's permission to hope for better health. I described palliative care as the elephant in the interprofessional room - Sickkids funded research suggests only 8-12% of children who would benefit from palliative care get such support. The participants included mostly nurses and students, there was only one doctor in attendance - her medical credentials from Switzerland have not been recognised.