Currently, 75% of children who have been diagnosed as having
cancer recover from this illness while 25% of them go through
the terminal period and die due to the recurrence of cancer and
not responding to the treatment. A child who is in terminal
period belongs to a patient group that cannot get a positive result
from the medical-curative treatments and can only benefit
from palliative treatment. Palliative care eases the suffering of
the patients in terminal period, lessens their agitation, in a way,
consoles them. In short, it is a multidisciplinary and holistic
approach with the objective that both the patients and their
families maintain the quality of their lives as much as possible.
Palliative care in children contains the assessment and
handling of the childrens' and family's physical, psychosocial
and spiritual needs and also symptom control and support to
family during the illness and mourning process. It is among
the duties of nurses to provide this care which both the child in
the terminal period and his/her family desperately need. The
nurses who offer their help to the children in terminal period
and their families should know about the palliative cure and be
able to apply it. For this reason, this paper deals with the palliative
cure for children in terminal period and their families.
Keywords: Children; nurse; palliative care; terminal period
