PediPal

PediPal goes on the road! Dan brings his microphone to Phoenix, AZ, for the 2024 Annual Assembly of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, ambushing unsuspecting guests with that classic PediPal question, "What are your take-home points?" Sarah, unable to attend the conference, shares her take-homes from home.Major thanks to AAHPM and all our enthusiastic participants: Tyler Badding, Gabe Daniels, Kelstan Ellis, Rachel Kentor, Jen Hwang, Matt McEvoy, Jennifer Salant, Alexis Santos, Meghna Singh, and Claire Slusarz, as well as #1 Fan Jared Rubenstein and #1 Fan Conrad Williams.

Where do the fields of Palliative Care, Neurology, and PM&R overlap? Where can we learn more about how to approach the dreaded uncertainty of neurologic prognostication? In this episode! Overcoming some technical difficulties, Dan (kinda) and Sarah discuss the field of Pediatric Neuropalliative Care with Marina Ma and Lauren Treat.

The episode we really wanted to call "2 Julie 2 Hauer."Julie Hauer is back on PediPal! This time, she's here to discuss with Sarah and Dan what we do when we're beyond the guidelines, short on evidence, and way past the point of randomized control. What influences do culture and anecdote have on our prescribing? How much of pediatric palliative care is science and how much is art... and how much does the difference matter?Julie's forthcoming book:Childhood Onset Severe Neurological Impairment: Where Medical Complexity and Uncertainty Meet (Oxford University Press) [We'll update with a link when one becomes available!]CPN NeuroJourney: https://neurojourney.courageousparentsnetwork.org

It's 2024! As PediPal enters its fourth year, we want to take a moment to look back on what we've learned over the last three years. So for the first time (and hopefully the last), we have no guests, just the reflections, opinions, and bad jokes of the two pedi pals ourselves.

How and where do we draw the boundaries between ourselves and our patients and families? What other boundaries do we draw--or not draw so well--in pediatric palliative care? Here to discuss these questions and more are Stacy Remke, MSW, and Rev. Bentley Stewart.

Death. Dying. Simple words, but often hard to say, and even harder to say to a child. In this episode, Sarah and Dan turn to some experts on saying difficult things to children, Certified Child Life Specialists Kelley Gavel and Nicole MackDiaz. Find out why Child Life is particularly adept at helping kids grapple with the toughest questions, and then stick around for a special guest who tries his best to stump Kelley and Nicole...Books mentioned by our guests:All About the Intensive Care Unit -  Alexandria FriesenLifetimes - Bryan Mellonie Ida Always - Caron LevisThe Memory Box: A Book About Grief - Joanna RowlandWhen Families Grieve - Sesame Street (English and Spanish)

Turn on, tune in, and drop your preconceptions, because in this episode, Sarah and Dan are your guides on a trip into the realm of psychedelics in pediatric palliative care. We join Dingle Spence, Chris Adrian, and Elisha Waldman to learn about how they came to do this work, how psilocybin is helping some bereaved parents on their journeys of grief, and what the future might hold for psychedelic therapies in pediatrics.

Interdisciplinary teams are so vital to the practice of palliative care, and in today's episode, the PediPal team explores a new kind of team member: What has four paws, has mastered the art of being present, and is guaranteed to increase the popularity of your palliative care team? A therapy dog!Join Sarah and Dan as they hear two tales of wagging tails who are dedicated members of Peds Palliative teams in British Columbia (Gaia) and Michigan (Fawn). We hear mostly from the humans who work closely with them, but if you listen extra carefully, you can almost hear the empathetic panting in the background...P.S. Pictures are worth a thousand "awws," so we strongly suggest you click on those bio links above as you listen.

Get psyched because PediPal is back! In this episode, Sarah and Dan interview two psychologists, Amanda Thompson and Rachel Kentor, about creating competencies for pediatric palliative psychology and how we can bring more psychology into the world of pediatric palliative care.You can read their recent paper here:https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37141582/And if you're interested in contacting them for more information about how to involve psychology in your pediatric palliative care practice, our guests have graciously shared their contact information:Amanda.Thompson AT inova DOT orgrxkentor AT texaschildrens DOT org

If you're working in pediatric palliative care and you haven't heard of Courageous Parents Network, put down this podcast immediately and go make yourself familiar with the amazing resource that is CPN. Sarah and Dan are thrilled to have three courageous parents - Blyth Lord, Amy Graver, and Liz Morris - discuss how their children's stories intersected with palliative care.And if you haven't heard the CPN podcast, make sure to check it out here: https://courageousparentsnetwork.org/podcasts/ 

Welcome to a special "Best of" PediPal episode! The notion, concept, and implementation of silence is integral to the practice of pediatric palliative care. Perhaps even more important than what we say is what we don't say, and how we don't say it, and when it isn't said. Join Sarah and Dan for an exploration of this truly golden feature of our specialty."Even a fool is thought wise if he keeps silent, and discerning if he holds his tongue." Proverbs 17:28

A social worker, a nurse practitioner, and three physicians walk into a podcast... There's no punchline, just the latest episode of PediPal, where Dan and Sarah interview three of the interprofessional fellows from the Boston Children's interprofessional fellowship program--Jennifer Donovan, Amy Porter, and Thomas Haire--and challenge ourselves to say the word "interprofessional" as many times as possible. We also include some clips from past episodes that resonate with the themes from the interview, so listen up for some old familiar voices from PediPal history.

How do you talk to a child about illness and death? For a field that deals with these challenging topics every day, we don't always feel comfortable helping our young patients and their families engage with them.  For guidance, Dan and Sarah turn to Elena Lister (@elenalistermd1) and Michael Schwartzman (@schwartzmanma), authors of Giving Hope: Conversations with Children About Illness, Death, and Loss.Links to buy Giving Hope here at Indie Bound and Penguin Random House; available in hardcover, ebook, and audiobook formats.

The holiday season is ending and boy are we stuffed... with educational and entertaining content about one of pediatric palliative care's more misunderstood and controversial topics: overfeeding. Sarah and Dan round out 2022 talking with skeletal dysplasia expert Ricki Carroll (@RickiCarroll), hospice guru Glen Komatsu, and the inimitable Julie Hauer about those times when our patients are getting too much nutrition and all the problems that can cause. 

Does practicing pediatric palliation promote positive parenting? Does parenthood put palliative practitioners in a preferable position? Dan and Sarah partner up to ponder these profound puzzles and palaver with Jessica Casas and Daniel Mahoney (@DanielMahoneyMD),  and Claire Crawford (@PalliativClaire), all from the Pediatric Advanced Care Team at Texas Children's Hospital.(CN: This episode deals with the topic of pregnancy loss.)

In our final international episode, Sarah and Dan speak with Doctora Rut Kiman (@KimanRut) about pediatric palliative care in Argentina and throughout Latin America.

Curative therapy and hospice... at the same time?! Since the Affordable Care Act, pediatric patients don't have to give up one to benefit from the other. But does this model really work, and does it make sense for the realities of pediatric palliative care and hospice as in 2022? To figure it all out, Sarah and Dan have a concurrent conversation with Steven Smith (@stevenmsmith913) and Conrad Williams (@conradw4) about Cadillacs, cookies, and #PedPC's biggest Twitter rivalry.

Where in the world is PediPal? South Africa! Sarah and Dan interview Julia Ambler (@AmblerJulia), the pediatric palliative care physician for Umduduzi Hospice Care for Children (https://umduduzi.co.za/) in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal.

How do medical marijuana and pediatric palliative care fit together? In this episode, Sarah and Dan seek some clarity about cannabis, interviewing two experts on the topic, Dr. Bonni Goldstein and Dr. Dustin Sulak. Listen to learn more about the endocannabinoid system and the impact that this much-maligned medicine has on it and on patients, often in ways we're only beginning to understand.Resources mentioned in the episode and recommended by the guests:Society of Cannabis Clinicians: https://www.cannabisclinicians.orgDr. Sulak's book: https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393714180Dr. Goldstein's book: https://www.canna-centers.com/cannabis-is-medicine/Dr. Sulak's website with free patient education: https://www.healer.comDr. Sulak's physician-developed hemp products: https://healercbd.com/

PediPal International steams onward, and we now find ourselves in Tokyo, Japan. In this episode, Sarah and Dan interview Nobuyuki Yotani 余谷 暢之, Head of the Department of Palliative Medicine at the National Center for Child Health and Development.