Presenter – Camara van Breemen, MN, CHPCN, Play Therapist, Nurse Practitioner(F), Canuck Place Children’s Hospice

Competencies –

• Domain 1 – Principles of PC & palliative approach. Utilizes a holistic approach to care with awareness of how illness, death and bereavement impacts all aspects of person’s and family’s functioning.
• Domain 2 – Cultural safety & humility. Facilitates expression and inclusion of the person’s and family’s values, beliefs, and wishes during declining health and bereavement.
• Domain 3 – Communication. Facilitates different conversations with families and members of the inter-professional team. Understands how fatigue, weakness and imminent death may impact communication and helps person/family and inter-professional teams interpret other forms of communication (e.g., symbolic communication, gestures, facial expressions).
• Domain 5 – Comfort & quality of life. Provides developmentally appropriate non-pharmacological interventions within own expertise appropriate including art, play therapy, and relaxation for relief of distress. Refers to other resources as needed.  Domain 6 – Loss, grief, and bereavement. Understands the characteristics and challenges of grieving for a child or youth. Provides counselling support or refers as appropriate.
• Domain 8 – Self care. Understands and attends to the impact of death, dying, and bereavement on caregivers (self, family, team, professionals).
• Describe strategies to assist parents/caregivers in sharing serious illness information appropriately with children
• Describe issues and barriers related to connection between the seriously ill person and a child and how to address same
• Describe activities and play therapy techniques that may be helpful for children along the illness trajectory and at EOL