Planning care

Abstract

Care planning is not merely another task on the checklist for providing children’s palliative care (CPC), but rather can be regarded as the foundation for accomplishing nearly all other CPC goals. Based on continuous communication and holistic assessment, care planning is a means to facilitating patient-family quality of life, not an end in and of itself. This CPC task is important because it enables practitioners to celebrate patient-family autonomy, improve the delivery of care according to their wishes and values, and avoid uncertainty. Care planning is also foundational to other activities which are pivotal to quality of life, including communication, acceptance, and trust.