A New Holistic-Evolutive Approach to Pediatric Palliative Care

This book illustrates why a holistic approach is particularly important in this sensitive field where motivation and reasons to good behave are all collected in this concept. To know "why", we need to look at the wholeness of a patient, not just at either their mental or physical needs; it means to know and to experience them, to consider their physical, emotional, social wellbeing. An evolutionary (or dynamic) approach is also needed. Each child/parent has a different experience of illness and a different path to recovery that is influenced by their age, gender, culture, but also by the state of their grief. To take care of them, we need to know the state of the subjects we are dealing with throughout their evolution in age (children) and in sorrow (both children and parents). Based on a holistic-evolutive approach, the book gives a new insight on the word "ethics", not in the sense of a series of principles ("principialism", "utilitarism" or "personalism"), but as an approach based on humanistic virtues. The idea of an ethical behavior based on the refusal of inauthentic behaviors (or behaviors that are copies of animals or machines) and a new criterion according to which even children have some ethical duties not based on rules, but on a harmonic co-operation with their parents and friends are also proposed. Furthermore, the ethical approach is offered to caregivers in a practical mode, for clinical exigencies.This book is also unique because it demonstrates that Pediatric Palliative Cares are not just a children's problem, but also involves the true care of parents and even of caregivers. For each one of these groups the book proposes recommendations but also a humanistic approach. It has a balanced structure aimed to the heart of the problem, namely the personality of the child, of the parent and of the caregivers without omitting the approach to pharmacological and non-pharmacological analgesia and sedation. The book will be of valuable support to all those intensivists, pediatricians, nurses, psychologists, physiotherapists and healthcare professionals working in PPC units.