A national conversation has been ongoing about collaborative partnerships with patients as they relate to personal health care discussions and decision making, with little focus on how these partnerships might apply to the pediatric population. Some health care providers may feel that this type of collaboration is not applicable to children (including adolescents) admitted to progressive and critical care because of patient acuity. Would this same perspective be held if the patients were adults?

In 1989, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child provided a standard related to the rights of children and is the most widely ratified international human rights treaty to date.1,2  The convention established the rights of children as equal to the rights of adults.3  Most laws related to the pediatric population in the United States are focused on protections, whereas few laws focus on rights,3  which may be...

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