Improving Cultural Approaches to Pediatric Palliative Care in Central Massachusetts

Abstract

Objectives: To determine the impact of a web tool developed to improve health care providers' ability and comfort in caring for a diverse patient population in the hospital setting. Methods: The pediatric palliative care team including a pediatric oncologist and a nurse practitioner in association with a clinical medical librarian and a hospital-based interpreter, collaborated to create a resource using SpringShare software to create a library guide. The purpose is to provide cultural and palliative care information resources, books, and journal articles to assist health care workers at UMass Memorial Children's Medical Center in caring for children from the diverse cultural backgrounds living in the region. In order to introduce and evaluate the usage of the library guide, we plan to survey Children's Medical Center staff including nurses, residents, attending physicians, and child life staff at baseline and after visiting the library guide. As of this date, the usage of the guide has had over 400 hits per month or 1,200 hits in the last 3 months (libraryguides.umassmed.edu/diversity_guide). Results: We will be conducting a survey of all children's medical center staff, nurses, and physicians to evaluate the usefulness and impact of this resource. Conclusions: The results of the survey will be complete in 2013.