Helping at the End-of-Life: A Phenomenological Study on the Experience of Pediatric Palliative Counselors
Pediatric palliative counseling is a branch of counseling that focuses on meeting the psychosocial, emotional, psychological, and spiritual needs of children with life-limiting illnesses and their families. The experience of pediatric palliative counselors is largely understudied, which means there is no awareness as to how these counselors can be better supported to protect themselves, their palliative care team members, and their clients. As such, the research questions of this study were: (1) What is the clinical experience of counselors in the pediatric palliative setting? (2) What meaning do pediatric palliative counselors derive from their work? These questions were investigated through a hermeneutic phenomenological approach to discover the clinical experiences of the counselors and uncover hidden meaning that they gain from it. Through in vivo and focused coding, the major themes identified were identified which include ethical considerations, immediacy, emotional labor, and spirituality. Some implications and areas of future research derived from the findings are explored in the discussion.
bereavement counseling, end-of-life, palliative care, palliative counseling, pediatric palliative care
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