In My Words: Meet the Leads – Dr. Stephanie van Zanten, Paediatric Palliative Care Physician
Watch Dr. Stephanie van Zanten’s short video profiles and read more about Stephanie’s story below.
“There is a huge need for everybody to understand a palliative care approach.” Dr. Stephanie van Zanten is passionate about pediatric palliative care; a subspecialty which is normally practiced in tertiary care centres in major cities. With Ontario being larger than France and Spain combined, access to palliative care for children across the province is a significant challenge. That’s where the ECHO Pediatric Palliative Care model continues to inspire Stephanie with its promise and impact.
A Maritimer from Halifax, Stephanie completed her MD at Dalhousie Medical School. Her Pediatrics residency in Ottawa followed. Training concluded with a one-year fellowship at the University of Ottawa. Her specialty is in Pediatric Palliative Care and Pain and Symptom Management.
Stephanie settled in Ottawa. She works in Pediatric Palliative Care at CHEO and Roger Neilson House. Life outside of work includes motherhood and a love of music. Stephanie is a member of the Voices Rock Medicine – Ottawa Choir.
How ECHO creates community and connection, extending my real and in-person resources to help in patient care.
Video Runtime: 2:00 min.
Dr. Stephanie van Zanten:
I think pediatric palliative care or providing pediatric palliative care is a very intense experience. We are taking care of patients and families in really difficult times and there’s a lot of vulnerability that’s shared inherently in our work.
We all experience moral distress and how do we support each other. And we all have moments of cases that are really challenging for whatever reason, whether it’s medically or psychologically.
How do we come together and how do we take care of ourselves and how do we take care of each other and how do we take care of our patients and do the best by everyone?
I think where ECHO, I think what it has created, it has created a greater community where my resources are much more real, like in-person, people that I can pick up the phone and call, is much larger and extends beyond my own institution, because of the community and the educational opportunities and the discussions we’ve had through ECHO.
ECHO Session Video:
Good morning. For those of you in my time zone and to the west. Good afternoon. If you’re east of us or farther away.
We’re all there to support them. And it makes it an even stronger team when we’re all working together is great.
That certainly, that’s what we’re going for. I hope we hit it all the time like that.
You owe me 20 Dollars (laughter).
Another 20 or the original 20, We’ll talk. (laughter).
Dr. Stephanie van Zanten:
I think that it does not replace something like an E-consult, but I think it’s a very useful tool in terms of creating community and connection and that is really important in terms of improving our care for our patients.
Three Key Points
A few key points that Stephanie raises throughout her interview:
- Vulnerability is inherently shared in paediatric palliative care. Healthcare providers need to know “how do we come together, and how do we take care of ourselves” in order to take care of our patients in the best way? ECHO Paediatric Palliative Care is a community of practice providing support that helps answer these key questions and concerns.
- Caring for a child at end-of-life or who is really struggling with symptoms, can be an area of discomfort, particularly for healthcare providers who don’t do pediatrics all the time. ECHO Paediatric Palliative Care offers value by providing a welcoming environment where questions can be asked supportively, and helpful connections can be facilitated.
- ECHO is a model rooted in open and safe communication. It’s a platform that connects providers at all levels of expertise, where you might find benefit in hearing how other providers are struggling with similar challenges and concerns or you might be able provide support or advice from the wealth of shared experience.
Next Session
Join the ECHO Paediatric Palliative Care community for our next session.
REGISTER NOW: Click link below.
- 11:15 am – 12:45 pm, May 21, 2025 – "The Good Parent"
“In My Words: Meet the Leads” is an ongoing series where we are profiling stories of the medical leads guiding the ECHO Paediatrics community of practice through their collaborative, CPD-accredited learning journey.
How does ECHO empower healthcare providers to get the resources they need or access the people they need to ask questions to?
Video Runtime: 2:28 min.
Dr. Stephanie van Zanten:
There is a huge need for everybody to understand palliative care approach to be exposed to what does it mean to provide palliative care to children? Who would benefit from palliative care? What is it? What does it mean?
When you think of different subspecialties pediatric palliative care in terms of its formalization, in terms of even training to become a pediatric palliative care physician, it is really at its infancy compared to other specialty pediatric specialties in the country.
There is a lot of room for that to be strengthened in terms of exposure for residents, for staff, for community partners. And so the education around what is this field and how can we support kids in their families is really important. Especially if you don’t do pediatrics all the time and then you’re looking after a child at end-of-life or who’s really struggling with symptoms for whatever reason, it can be an area of discomfort, even for pediatrician.
And, people who practice pediatric palliative care are generally situated in, you know, tertiary care centres in bigger cities.
But there are kids who live across the country and across the province and they don’t necessarily live close to a pediatric kind of care centre. So we want to empower everybody to feel like they are able to get the resources they need or have access to the people they need to ask questions to and learn more about it if they want to.
ECHO Session Video:
Hello, everybody. My name is Stephanie Van Zanten. I’m one of the physicians at CHEO, and I’m really excited to be hosting today’s Echo Session. We’re really lucky this year for session two. And today we’re going to have an awesome presentation on symptom management, specifically dyspnea, nausea and vomiting.
Dr. Stephanie van Zanten:
And so what I think have been so amazing and what I feel really lucky about being able to be part of ECHO is that it is this like amazing, well-organized avenue that is designed to connect people in the community with subspecialists and pediatric palliative care, where everyone feels like they’re part of one big team.
Community case submissions are core to ECHO's education and support model. Is there a specific case that sticks out for you as particularly impactful?
I have been lucky to be able to attend many, many sessions, and listened in on a lot of cases. I’ve also presented cases and put together cases.
I think that what sticks with me are the cases on the theme around difficult decision making, where there’s an element of moral distress around a case for whatever reason.
It’s not one particular case per se, but the fact that this is a theme that I’ve seen in many different cases, regardless of who’s presenting it, whether it’s at a hospital or a community or wherever. We all experience moral distress. And we all have moments of cases that are really challenging for whatever reason, whether it’s medically or psychologically, and we need to know that we’re not alone in that.
How do we come together and how do we take care of ourselves and how do we take care of each other and how do we take care of our patients and do the best by everyone while we’re experiencing that.
We all experience that and that’s okay. We just have to have an outlet and support each other in this process.
Review Previous ECHO Sessions:
Next Session
Join the ECHO Paediatric Palliative Care community for our next session.
REGISTER NOW: Click link below.
- 11:15 am – 12:45 pm, May 21, 2025 – "The Good Parent"
What lessons has your work life taught you?
I think the thing that I have taken away from my job, and it’s probably going to sound cliché, but it just makes me so grateful for everything that you have. And I know that what I have is not always going to be like this forever. And I don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow. I don’t know what’s going to happen in five years, but it just makes me really grateful for everything that I do have.
And it has taught me to reflect on my life and in the day to day, to not worry about the “what ifs” because I can’t control those. But to focus on today and the positives that I have in my life right now.
One thing that’s always been really important to me is music. So I sing in a choir with other female physicians and that is an immense source of joy for me. So fun. It’s called Voices Rock, and I’m in Voices Rock Medicine, Ottawa. We are around 70 members this year. It’s just like, fun music. You do not have to be experienced. There are no tryouts. It’s totally about connecting and singing with other people. And it’s awesome because there are all these other awesome women in medicine who I would have never met before because our paths wouldn’t have crossed.
Dr. Stephanie van Zanten performing with other women physicians in the Voices Rock Medicine – Ottawa Choir.