Specialized Pediatric Palliative Care: In-Hospital, Homecare and Intersectoral Demands
A special issue of Children (ISSN 2227-9067). This special issue belongs to the section "Pediatric Anesthesiology, Pain Medicine and Palliative Care".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 10 April 2026
Special Issue Editors
Interests: Palliative care for Children and Young People
Interests: Pediatric Quality of Living and Dying Pediatric Palliative Care
Interests: pain management; migraine; palliative medicine; pain medicine
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Worldwide, more than 20 million children are in need of pediatric palliative care (PPC). Pediatric patients suffer from a broad spectrum of life-limiting conditions, most of which are rare diseases. The unit of care comprises the whole family, not just the affected child. PPC should be delivered by an interprofessional team in different healthcare settings like the school, in society, and in primary, secondary or tertiary care. The goals of PPC are symptom control as well as social, spiritual, and emotional support to improve and stabilize the quality of life. PPC is a holistic care approach.
Typically, three levels of PPC are defined. Level 1 is called the palliative care approach and means that palliative care principles are appropriately applied by all healthcare professionals. Level 2 is a general palliative care approach delivered by professionals with basic PPC training. Level 3 is the highest PPC level with specialist professionals in PPC working in specialized PPC services—PPC is their core activity.
This Special Issue should attract manuscripts on Level 3, specialized pediatric palliative care delivered in-hospital as well as at home with a special focus on intersectoral demands.
Dr. Ulrika Charlotta Kreicbergs
Dr. A. A. Eduard Verhagen
Prof. Dr. Boris Zernikow
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Children is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- pediatric palliative care
- children´s hospice
- hospital
- palliative care unit
- quality of life
- family
- symptom management
- neonatal palliative care
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