Garstang Joanna, Griffiths Frances, Sidebotham Peter
Division of Mental Health and Wellbeing, Warwick Medical School, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK.
BMC Pediatr. 2014 Oct 15;14:269. doi: 10.1186/1471-2431-14-269.
The death of a child is a devastating event for parents. In many high income countries, following an unexpected death, there are formal investigations to find the cause of death as part of wider integrated child death review processes. These processes have a clear aim of establishing the cause of death but it is less clear how bereaved families are supported. In order to inform better practice, a literature review was undertaken to identify what is known about what bereaved parents want from professionals following an unexpected child death.
This was a mixed studies systematic review with a thematic analysis to synthesize findings. The review included papers from Europe, North America or Australasia; papers had to detail parents' experiences rather than professional practices.
The review includes data from 52 papers, concerning 4000 bereaved parents. After a child has died, parents wish to be able to say goodbye to them at the hospital or Emergency Department, they would like time and privacy to see and hold their child; parents may bitterly regret not being able to do so. Parents need to know the full details about their child's death and may feel that they are being deliberately evaded when not given this information. Parents often struggle to obtain and understand the autopsy results even in the cases where they consented for the procedure. Parents would like follow-up appointments from health care professionals after the death; this is to enable them to obtain further information as they may have been too distraught at the time of the death to ask appropriate questions or comprehend the answers. Parents also value the emotional support provided by continuing contact with health-care professionals.
All professionals involved with child deaths should ensure that procedures are in place to support parents; to allow them to say goodbye to their child, to be able to understand why their child died and to offer the parents follow-up appointments with appropriate health-care professionals.
孩子的死亡对父母来说是一场毁灭性的事件。在许多高收入国家，意外死亡后会进行正式调查以查明死因，这是更广泛的综合儿童死亡审查程序的一部分。这些程序有明确的查明死因的目标，但对于如何支持失去亲人的家庭却不太明确。为了为更好的实践提供依据，进行了一项文献综述，以确定在儿童意外死亡后，失去亲人的父母对专业人员有哪些期望。
这是一项混合研究的系统综述，采用主题分析来综合研究结果。该综述纳入了来自欧洲、北美或澳大拉西亚的论文；论文必须详细描述父母的经历而非专业实践。
该综述纳入了52篇论文的数据，涉及4000名失去亲人的父母。孩子死后，父母希望能够在医院或急诊科与他们告别，他们希望有时间和隐私去看望和拥抱自己的孩子；父母可能会因无法这样做而深感遗憾。父母需要了解孩子死亡的全部细节，如果没有得到这些信息，他们可能会觉得自己被故意回避了。即使在同意进行尸检的情况下，父母也常常难以获取和理解尸检结果。父母希望在孩子死后能得到医疗保健专业人员的随访预约；这是为了使他们能够获取更多信息，因为他们在孩子死亡时可能过于心烦意乱，无法提出恰当的问题或理解答案。父母也重视与医疗保健专业人员持续接触所提供的情感支持。
所有参与儿童死亡事件的专业人员都应确保有相应程序来支持父母；让他们能够与孩子告别，能够理解孩子死亡的原因，并为父母提供与合适的医疗保健专业人员的随访预约。
