Comparing Parent and Physician Perspectives on the Transition to Palliative Care in Pediatric Oncology

One of the emerging challenges in pediatric oncology is how to make the transition to palliative care more effective and meet the needs of the affected families. To do so, what “good communication” signifies for the different stakeholders needs to be explored. The aim of our project was to compare the perspectives of pediatric oncologists and bereaved parents regarding the transition to palliative care and identify key differences in their communication preferences. Our data consisted of semi-structured interviews; after coding and segmentation, the data was modeled using Epistemic Network Analysis (ENA). Our results indicate that while parents in our cohort favored communication that is primary oncologist-led and preferred the physician’s active involvement in pediatric palliative care (PPC), physicians prioritized multidisciplinary teamwork and did not see themselves as essential participants of PPC. Based on our findings, communication approaches contributing to a more efficient transition to palliative care include the distribution of communication tasks within the care team and the production of information material. These approaches may be relevant for both healthcare providers and families in countries with an oncologist-centered communication model and scarce availability of specialized PPC services.