Developing Confidence in Caring for Children with Life-Threatening Illness: The PANDA Cubs Palliative Care Resource Team

This project seeks to evaluate an evidence-based innovative model of care aimed at increasing access to palliative care services and continuity across the spectrum of care. Building off of the well-established End of Life Nursing Education Consortium Pediatric Palliative Care (ELNEC-PPC) training, a 12-month intensive educational program targets front line clinicians from all disciplines to develop confidence in providing primary palliative care for pediatric patients with life-threatening conditions, with specialized tertiary palliative care provided by the formal palliative care team. Primary palliative care is operationally defined as the care provided by the bedside clinician that addresses the physical, emotional, spiritual, cultural and environmental needs of children with life-threatening illnesses and their families. Tertiary palliative care is operationally defined as specialized care provided by trained and specialty board-certified palliative care clinicians addressing advanced symptom distress.