Intersectoral collaboration in home-based end-of-life pediatric cancer care: A qualitative multiple-case study integrating families’ and professionals’ experiences

Background:Many children and adolescents with incurable cancer and their families prefer to receive end-of-life care and to die at home. This implies a transition of care from hospital to home and presupposes the establishment of a well-functioning collaboration between the family and professionals across health care sectors.Aim:To identify and explore key elements of home-based end-of-life care collaboration for children with cancer, as experienced by their parents and grandparents and the hospital- and community-based professionals involved.Design:Descriptive qualitative multiple-case study. Data were collected by semi-structured interviews and written responses to open-ended questions, and analyzed inductively across cases using qualitative content analysis.Setting/participants:Cases comprised a criterion sample of five children (aged