Documentation, process and implementation of advance care planning in the pediatric population: A scoping review protocol

Abstract

Objective: To explore the literature surrounding pediatric ACP process, documenting and implementing the documentation processes in hopes to inform and support content experts in the creation of a pediatric provincial document for ACP.Introduction: The number of children with serious illness/medical complexity in this province who require ACP and documentation of medical intervention is estimated to be >500 or possibly more. An ongoing data analysis suggests that the number may exceed 1,000 children, greater than the number of children and families consulted to the CPCH program. Currently there is no provincial document for pediatric patients such as the BC Medical Orders for Scope of Treatment form (MOST) as there is in adult care.Inclusion criteria: The review will include studies that focus on documentation, process or implementation in pediatric advance care planning. Child refers to prenatal, neonate, child and youth population (0-19 years), but may also extend into young adulthood in some contexts. These children are defined as at-risk for sudden death and/or expected death prior to reaching adulthood.Methods: We will search MEDLINE (Ovid), Embase (Ovid), CINAHL (EBSCOhost), Web of Science Core Collection and Google Scholar, as well as sources of unpublished studies and grey literature. Identified studies will be screened against the eligibility criteria. This review will only consider studies published in English and no date limits will be placed on the search. Relevant data will be extracted from eligible studies and the extracted data will presented in narrative and tabular/charted formats.