Pay More Attention: a national mixed methods study to identify the barriers and facilitators to ensuring equal access to high-quality hospital care and services for children and young people with and without learning disabilities and their families

Being a child with intellectual disabilities in hospital: The need for an individualised approach to care

BACKGROUND

There is limited qualitative research focussed specifically on what it is like for children and young people with intellectual disabilities coming into hospital, with much of the evidence-base being about those with Autism Spectrum Condition or adults with intellectual disabilities.

AIM

To share rich detail of the emotional and physical impact on children and young people with intellectual disabilities of attending hospital, from their own and their parent's perspective.

METHODS

Talking Mats interviews, sticker survey and photography with children and young people with intellectual disabilities, and in-depth interviews, hospital diaries and photography with their parents.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS

The multiple and compounding layers of complexity surrounding hospital care of children and young people with intellectual disabilities resulted in challenges associated with loss of familiarity and routine, undergoing procedures, managing sensory overload, managing pain and having a lack of safety awareness. An individualised approach to their care is needed.

Patient safety and quality care for children with intellectual disability: An action research study

Children with intellectual disability experience significant challenges in accessing and receiving high-quality healthcare leading to poorer health outcomes and negative patient experiences. Families of these children often report a need for healthcare staff to better understand, communicate, and collaborate for better care while staff acknowledge a lack of training. To address this, we utilised an action research framework with a pre- and post- survey to evaluate an integrated continuing professional development and quality improvement program combining strategies from education, behavioural psychology and quality improvement that was delivered in two departments within a tertiary children's Hospital in Metropolitan Sydney in 2019-2020. Parents reported noticeable changes in the clinical practice of staff, and staff acknowledged and attributed their shift in behaviour to raising awareness and discussions around necessary adaptations. The program demonstrates a novel method for knowledge translation to practice and systems improvements.

A day surgery admissions pathway for children and young people with learning disabilities

Following feedback from parents and carers, a new pathway was developed by staff in the paediatric day surgery unit of a hospital in England for admitting children and young people with learning disabilities, some of whom are autistic. This article describes the All About Me pathway, which supports individualised admission planning and uses an interdisciplinary approach to enable multiple examinations or procedures to be completed under a single anaesthetic. The authors explain how the All About Me team works with families, schools and caregivers to gain a greater understanding of each child and young person. This enables the team to make reasonable adjustments to the environment and admission process to maximise the chance of a successful admission. Families have reported that the pathway has made significant improvements to their experience of healthcare services. The pathway continues to develop and has become the focus of a quality improvement project which is expected to demonstrate cost savings.

Talking with children and young people with 22q11DS about their mental health, behaviour, learning and communication

BACKGROUND

22q11DS11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11DS) is a complex multisystem syndrome characterized by physical abnormalities, psychiatric comorbidities and cognitive deficits. The views of children and young people (CYP) about the challenges associated with their mental health, behaviour, learning and communication difficulties have not been reported. The aim of this study was to address this gap and to understand whether they had help and support with these and their views of this.

METHODS

A three-phase mixed-methods study was undertaken, involving interviews with CYP with 22q11DS, a follow-up survey for those aged 11-25 years and a stakeholder workshop at which CYP presented their views of living with 22q11DS to health professionals and parents. Interview transcripts were thematically analysed, and non-parametric statistics were used to analyse survey data.

RESULTS

The interviews (n = 13) and survey (n = 32) indicated a mixed picture, with some CYP not reporting ongoing problems; others who had problems received help but a sizeable proportion had unmet needs and wanted to receive help. Two-thirds reported often experiencing negative feelings, and almost half had difficulties with social interactions. Family members were the main sources of support, with teaching assistants identified as an important support at school.

CONCLUSIONS

The emotional impact of 22q11DS on CYP can be significant: They often do not understand the consequences of having 22q11DS and are frequently not given strategies to understand and manage their feelings, behaviour or problems. This leads to a range of emotions that manifest in different ways at home and at school. CYP are able to talk about the impact of different aspects of 22q11DS on them, facilitated by the use of creative methods, but they differ in how the condition affects them and their perceptions about that. It is imperative that CYP themselves are asked about their experiences, feelings and needs to ensure tailoring of interventions to their individual requirements.

Learning disability nurse provision in children's hospitals: hospital staff perceptions of whether it makes a difference

Background

In response to multiple United Kingdom investigations and inquiries into the care of adults with learning disabilities, Mencap produced the Getting it Right Charter which campaigned for the appointment of a Learning Disability Liaison Nurse in every hospital. More recent best practice guidelines from the Care Quality Commission included the need for all children’s units to have access to a senior learning disability nurse who can support staff and help them manage difficult situations. However, little evidence exists of the extent of learning disability nurse provision in children’s hospitals or the nature and impact of this role. Here we report selected findings from a national mixed methods study of hospital care for children and young people with and without learning disabilities in England. The extent of learning disability nurse provision in children’s hospitals is described and perceptions of staff working in hospitals with and without such provision is compared.

Methods

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with senior staff across 15 children’s hospitals and an anonymous survey was sent to clinical and non-clinical staff with patient (children and young people) contact within these hospitals. The survey focused on six different elements of care for those with and without learning disability, with additional questions concerning identifying and tracking those with learning disabilities and two open-ended questions.

Results

Forty-eight senior staff took part in interviews, which included a subset of nine nurses and one allied health professional employed in a dedicted learning disability nurse role, or similar.

Surveys were completed by 1681, of whom 752 worked in a hospital with dedicated learning disability nurse provision. We found evidence of limited and varied learning disability nurse provision which was valued by hospital staff and shown to positively impact their perceptions of being capable to care for children and young people with learning disabilities, but not shown to increase staff perceptions of capacity or confidence, or how children and young people are valued within the hospital, their safety or access to appointments.

Conclusion

Further consideration must be given to how learning disability nurse roles within children’s hospitals are best operationalised in practice to have the greatest impact on staff and families, as well as how we monitor and evaluate them to ensure they are being utilised effectively and efficiently.

Trial registration

The study has been registered on the NIHR CRN portfolio 20,461 (Phase 1), 31,336 (Phases 2–4).

'Shitty nursing' - The new normal?

In this article we ask our profession to consider whether something is rotten at the core of modern nursing. We will use our own experiences as patients, together with published literature, to ask questions of our profession in perpetrating what one of our colleagues recently, and with great embarrassment, referred to as 'shitty nursing'. Our intention is most certainly not to offend any readers, for this term has been used in literature for more than one hundred years to describe bad situations, including those where events or people's behaviour are of a low standard. Our intention instead, is to challenge ourselves, the profession and you the reader by raising a measured debate which seems at present to be missing within the profession. We examine the potential idea that poor nursing care may not be the exception, but horrifyingly, may be the new normal. We are particularly concerned that patients' fundamental care needs may be falling into an ever widening gap between assistant and registered nurses. Whilst we acknowledge the potential causes of poor nursing care, causes that are often cited by nurses themselves, we come to the conclusion that a mature profession including clinicians, educators, administrators, researchers and regulators cannot continually blame contextual factors for its failings. A mature profession with an intact contract between itself and society must shoulder some of the responsibility for its own problems. We do suggest a way forward, including a mix of reconciliation, refocus and research, underpinned by what we argue is a much needed dose of professional humility. Readers may take us to task for potentially overstating the problem, ignoring non-nursing drivers, and downplaying other significant factors. You may think that there is much in nursing to glory in. However, we make no apology for presenting our views. Our lived experiences tell us something different. As professional nurses our main aim is to ensure that our adverse experiences as patients are statistical anomalies, and our future encounters with nursing care represent all that we know to be excellent in our profession. We leave you to judge and comment.

Mapping staff perspectives towards the delivery of hospital care for children and young people with and without learning disabilities in England: a mixed methods national study

Background

Children and young people (CYP) with learning disabilities (LD) are a vulnerable population with increased risk of abuse and accidental injury and whose parents have reported concerns about the quality, safety and accessibility of their hospital care. The Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) view of best practice for this group of patients includes: access to senior LD nurse provision; a clearly visible flagging system for identifying them; the use of hospital passports; and defined communication strategies (Glasper, Comp Child Adolesc Nurs 40:63-67, 2017). What remains unclear is whether these recommendations are being applied and if so, what difference they are making. Furthermore, what we do not know is whether parental concerns of CYP with LD differ from parents of other children with long-term conditions. The aims of this study were to 1) describe the organisational context for healthcare delivery to CYP with LD and their families and 2) compare staff perceptions of their ability to identify the needs of CYP with and without LD and their families and provide high quality care to effectively meet these needs.

Methods

Individual interviews (n = 65) and anonymised online survey (n = 2261) were conducted with hospital staff working with CYP in 15 children’s and 9 non-children’s hospitals in England. The majority of interviews were conducted over the telephone and recorded and transcribed verbatim. Health Research Authority was obtained and verbal or written consent for data collection was obtained from all interview participants.

Results

The nature and extent of organisational policies, systems and practices in place within hospitals to support the care of CYP with LD differs across England and some uncertainty exists within and across hospitals as to what is currently available and accessed. Staff perceived that those with LD were included less, valued less, and less safe than CYP without LD. They also reported having less confidence, capability and capacity to meet the needs of this population compared to those without LD.

Conclusion

Findings indicate inequality with regards the provision of high quality hospital care to children and young people with LD that meets their needs.

There is a pressing need to understand the impact this has on them and their families.

Trial registration

The study has been registered on the NIHR CRN portfolio 20461 (Phase 1), 31336 (Phases 2-4).

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (10.1186/s12913-018-2970-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

National Disability Insurance Scheme, health, hospitals and adults with intellectual disability

Preventable poor health outcomes for adults with intellectual disability in health settings have been known about for years. Subsequent analysis and the sorts of reasonable adjustments required in health and disability support settings to address these health gaps are well described, but have not really been embedded in practice in any significant way in either setting. As far as health is concerned, implementation of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS, the Scheme) affords an opportunity to recognise individual needs of people with intellectual disability to provide reasonable and necessary functional support for access to mainstream health services, to build capacity of mainstream health providers to supply services and to increase individual capacity to access services. Together these strands have potential to transform health outcomes. Success of the Scheme, however, rests on as yet incompletely defined operational interaction between NDIS and mainstream health services and inherently involves the disability sector. This interaction is especially relevant for adults with intellectual disability, known high users of hospitals and for whom hospital outcomes are particularly poor and preventable. Keys to better hospital outcomes are first, the receiving of quality person-centred healthcare from physicians and hospitals taking into account significance of intellectual disability and second, formulation of organised quality functional supports during hospitalisation. Achieving these require sophisticated engagement between consumers, the National Disability Insurance Agency, Commonwealth, State and Territory government leaders, senior hospital and disability administrators, NDIS service providers and clinicians and involves cross fertilisation of values, sharing of operational policies and procedures, determination of boundaries of fiscal responsibility for functional supports in hospital.

"LEARN"ing what is important to children and young people with intellectual disabilities when they are in hospital

BACKGROUND

The need to review health service provision for children and young people (CYP) with disabilities and their families in the United Kingdom has been expressed in multiple reports: the most consistent message being that services need to be tailored to meet their individual needs. Our aim was to understand the hospital-related needs and experiences of CYP with intellectual disabilities.

METHOD

An ethnographic study of a neurosciences ward and outpatient department was conducted within a paediatric tertiary hospital setting.

RESULTS

Five themes, developed using the acronym LEARN, explained what is important to CYP with intellectual disabilities in hospital: (i) little things make the biggest difference, (ii) eliminate unnecessary waiting, (iii) avoid boredom, (iv) routine and home comforts are key and (v) never assume.

CONCLUSIONS

It is imperative that the present authors continue to challenge the idea that it is acceptable to exclude CYP with intellectual disabilities from research because of their inability to participate.