*INTRODUCTION

With the advancement of modern medicine, the increased survival rates of children with severe, life-threatening diseases have led to a rise in demand for complex medical devices and advanced medical services due to resultant complex disabilities, highlighting the importance of pediatric palliative care(PPC). However, there still exists an overall lack of understanding and negative perceptions regarding PPC, which act as barriers to accessing palliative care services.

*AIM

Through this QI initiative, we aimed to objectively assess the perception status of PPC among internal staff and external individuals, and promote the vitalization of PPC services through perception improvement activities.

*METHOD

1. Perception improvement activities
•First,aPPCeducationalmaterialsweredevelopedbyutilizingtheNationalCancerCenterKorea’smobileeducationsystemcalled‘Hi-Chart’andwereusedtoconductpromotionalactivitiestargetingpatientsandtheircaregivers,whileinternalstaffwereeducatedontheimportance,principles,values,andlatestguidelinesofPPC.
•Secondly,AWorldHospice&PalliativeCareDayeventswereorganizedtostimulateinterestamongpatients,caregivers,healthcareprofessionals,healthcareworkers,andthegeneralpublicandtodisseminatedetailedinformationonPPCservice.
2.Measures
•Pre-andpost-improvementindicatorsweremeasuredamonginternalstaffandexternalparticipantsthroughvoluntaryparticipationinasurveythatconsistedof9questionsthatmeasuredperception,attitude,andunderstandingofPPCona1-5Likertscale.Inthissurvey,higherscoresindicatedhigherlevelsofperceptionandpositiveattitude,whilelowerscoresindicatedhigherlevelsofknowledge.
3.Analysis
•StatisticalanalysiswereconductedusingSPSS25.0.Independentt-testwasusedtocomparetheperception,attitude,andunderstandingofPPCbetweeninternalstaffandtheexternalgeneralpublic,andtoassesschangesininternalstaffbeforeandafterqualityimprovementactivities.