Prematurityseverely ill newborns
Conditions
Interventions
Group 1: End-of-life decision making conversations between parents and medical staff will be recorded on audiotape. These conversations will then be transcribed verbatim by a professional transcriptio
Sponsors
Klinikum der Universität München, Campus Großhadern
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Inclusion criteria
Inclusion criteria: The target population includes all parents of patients for whom withholding or withdrawing intensive care is considered. Some of these patients are on mechanical ventilation and will die after respiratory support is withdrawn. Others are admitted to the NICU and develop such a poor prognosis that with parental agreement intensive care is confined to continuing mechanical ventilation and nutritional support but not escalate treatment for possible complications (redirecting care), for example in case of an additional pneumothorax or sepsis. Some of these children do not develop any of these complications and survive. All potential patients will be registered by weekly feedback from all consulting neonatologists. Furthermore, prenatal counseling conversations with parents expecting a baby for whom withholding intensive care or palliative care is considered, will be included as well. Eligible counseling conversations are those with parents of possible extreme prematures shortly before the threshold of viability (GA 21 0/7 – GA 22 6/7) and babies diagnosed with life threatening congenital malformations.
Exclusion criteria
Exclusion criteria: -Premature infants below the threshold of viability
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame |
|---|---|
| Analysis of the existing communication with parents in end-of-life decision-making situations. | — |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame |
|---|---|
| To improve the communication in end-of-life decision-making. | — |
Countries
Germany
Contacts
Public ContactEsther Sabine Schouten
Klinikum der Universität München, Campus GroßhadernNeonatologie (Station I10B)
Outcome results
None listed