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Journal of RNA and Genomics| Volume 14 General Pediatrics Congress 2018 Current Pediatric Research | ISSN: 0971-9032 | Volume 22
GENERAL PEDIATRICS, ADOLESCENT
MEDICINE AND NEONATOLOGY CONGRESS
OF EXCELLENCE
IN INTERNATIONAL
MEETINGS
YEARS
Maha Atout et al., Curr Pediatr Res 2018, Volume 22 | DOI: 10.4066/0971-9032-C3-008
EXPLORING THE EXPERIENCE OF
COMMUNICATION IN THE CARE OF
CHILDREN WITH PALLIATIVE CARE NEEDS:
THE PERSPECTIVES OF FAMILY CARERS,
PHYSICIANS AND NURSES IN JORDAN
Maha Atout1, Pippa Hemingway2 and Jane Seymour3
1Philadelphia University, Amman, Jordan
2University of Nottingham, Queen’s Medical Centre, UK
3University of Sheffield, UK
Background: Despite having limited access to specialist palliative care, coun-
tries can successfully satisfy palliative care needs by ensuring all health
professionals are properly trained and educated in their respective roles. To
ensure that adequate care is provided for children with palliative needs in all
healthcare settings, adequate training and support for care professionals is
essential, even in cases where minimal specialist services are offered. Ef-
fective communication is a fundamental element in ensuring the quality of
care provided to children with palliative care needs and has a considerable
effect on the well-being of children as well as their relatives and care pro-
fessionals. Nonetheless, a broad overview of the existing literature reveals
that nurses often feel inadequately trained or prepared in terms of the com-
munication skills needed to deal with the difficult situations. They often lack
the confidence to communicate properly with parents or to deal with difficult
questions or issues of conflict. Whilst this seems to echo studies previously
conducted across a range of countries worldwide, research shows that coun-
tries with an Arab culture face slightly different issues in terms of disclosing
serious prognoses to families. The current study is the first to examine com-
munication between children, parents, and health professionals, in the care
of children with non-malignant life-threatening and life-limiting illnesses in
Jordan, and in particular the cultural and spiritual context that affects this
communication.
Purpose and objectives: The purpose of the current study is to explore the ex-
perience of communication in the care of children with palliative care needs,
from the perspective of physicians, nurses, and mothers in Jordan. In this
paper, the findings concerning mothers’ experiences will be presented.
BIOGRAPHY
Maha Atout completed her PhD from the University of Not-
tingham in 2017. She work as an assistant professor at the
Philadelphia University of Jordan. She has Experience in
working with children with life-threatening and life-limiting
illnesses led to her interest in understanding communication
between children with life-threatening conditions and their
parents and health-care professionals. Her PhD work is fo-
cused on investigating communication in the care of children
with palliative care needs from the perspectives of Jordanian
mothers, physicians, and nurses. She has published sever-
al papers in this field. She is also interested in investigating
parental experiences of decision making at the end of life
for children with life-threatening and life-limiting conditions.
Currently, she is investigating children’s awareness of death,
a subject that is largely neglected in the literature. During her
training in the University of Nottingham, she gained solid
foundation in qualitative and mixed method research. She
had presented in several international conferences and be-
came increasingly productive in disseminating the findings
of her research.