BARCELONA

Nurses in charge: Marta Palomares, Rocío Escobar, Sílvia Cipres and Ester Fernández

Entity/Agency in charge: Sant Joan de Déu Hospital of Barcelona

Description

The unit of pediatric palliative care of the Sant Joan de Déu hospital takes care of the children who have been diagnosed with an illness that threatens or limits their lives and their families’, so that they can be offered a multidisciplinary care with a team composed of doctors, nurses, social workers, a psychologist and an agent of spiritual care, so as to cover all of their needs, be it in the hospital, in outpatient consultations or at home.

Sometimes we cannot be there from the moment of the diagnosis, but we try to meet the patients as soon as possible or when their illness reaches a point of no return to the basal state, thus undermining their quality of life substantially.

Through the prevention and improvement of the suffering, with precocious identification and a careful treatment of pain and other physical, spiritual, emotional or social problems of the patients and their families.

All of this is possible because we offer the following:

• A 24/7 assistance 365 days a year.
• A coordination both with the zone teams (ambulatories, regional hospitals, PADES, schools, CDIAP, etc.) and with other specialists in the hospital.
• We empower families, visit after visit and call after call, so that they can be at home for the most part of the development of the illness and even on the last days in the lives of their children. And we ensure all of this is done calmly and serenely.
• We include the family and the nearby environment of the patient in his/her care, also making brothers and sisters participants in his/her care.
• We cover a geographical spread as large as Catalonia.
• We do case closings with all of the teams that are treating the patient in order to asses not only the care provided, but also the emotional toll for everyone implied.
• We offer families a meeting with the unit and assistance afterwards, during the mourning, with individual or group monitoring.

Thanks to the support of the Sant Joan de Déu Hospital, there is an auto-funding project through the foundation Gloria Soler.

Therefore, we try to offer the maximum quality of life to these patients and their families, during the time that they decide, without trying to prolong the survival.