P3.I178: Bereaved Parent Educator Onboarding Curriculum: A Trauma-Informed Care Approach to Orienting Pediatric End of Life Care Skills Workshop Facilitators

Background: Pediatric end-of-life care skills (PECS) simulation-based workshops developed and effectively delivered locally incorporate the unique expertise of bereaved parents as educators. A skilled interprofessional team optimally delivers pediatric end-of-life care emphasizing family-centeredness, thus it is essential to include the perspectives of bereaved parents, who have experienced the death of a child. To expand PECS workshop frequency, our needs assessment identified an increased number of bereaved parent educators to feasibly maintain this invaluable perspective at all workshops. Many examples of bereaved parent engagement for PECS education and advocacy exist, but we did not find a standard onboarding process or curriculum. Our objective was to develop and implement a bereaved parent educator framework, process, and curriculum.

Methods: Our established interprofessional PECS workshop advisory group (two bereaved parents, physicians, social workers, nurses, simulation educators) developed a five-part onboarding process for additional bereaved parent educators. Acknowledging the parents’ lived experience having cared for and experiencing the death of a child with serious illness and/or medical complexity, the group utilized trauma-informed care (TIC) framework.The TIC principles (safety, choice, collaboration, trustworthiness, empowerment, skill development) guided the intersection of previous PECS workshop standardized patient and medical educator orientations for the bereaved parent educators. The process included initial recruitment from local networks and onboarding (Table 1). The integration was designed with TIC framework to prepare the bereaved parents both personally and professionally to be clinician educators. The steps involved individual, small, and large group activities; relationship building; didactic content; experiential observation and learning; and structured debriefings. To evaluate participants’ ongoing engagement and the curriculum effectiveness, we conducted a post-session survey (after step 1) and structured debriefing (after steps 4 and 5) and planned a 6-month follow-up survey.

Results: The process was implemented over 5 months in 2023. Step 1 included 14 parents of whom 12 completed step 2, then 6 (all identified as mothers, white race) completed onboarding steps 3-5. Attrition was primarily related to time commitment per surveys. Associated costs were approximately $3,500. Emerging themes in early qualitative analysis of survey data and structured debriefings with new educators suggests participants were adequately prepared for step 5 and found engagement meaningful, inspiring, and emotionally difficult.

Conclusion: The PECS bereaved parent educator onboarding curriculum was feasible locally for 6 new educators. Early findings suggest the TIC framework was effective for the intersecting needs to prepare individuals as educators, immerse in simulated pediatric end-of-life scenarios, and uphold lived, at times traumatic, experiences as bereaved parents. Further analysis from educators and participants plus follow-up survey data is needed. Iterative work includes sustainable funding and psychosocial support plus bereaved parent educator recruitment among additional identities.