Accompaniment of minors during health care procedures

In clinical practice, it is not rare to encounter situations in which parents and families are asked to leave the child alone with the health care team in rooms full of devices throughout the performance of procedures, which at times may give rise not only to conflicts but, more importantly, emotional sequelae in children or adolescents. We conducted a narrative review of the literature by searching the digital library of the public health care system of Andalusia for articles concerning the experiences of health care professionals and families with the accompaniment of paediatric patients during health care procedures. We restricted the search to studies published in Spanish or English and conducted in humans. The review evinced the need to humanise care in order to improve care quality. The need to accompany minors is supported by the evidence from works that have analysed the factors involved in the persistence of these behaviours and attitudes in both professionals and parents. We consider it necessary to develop institutional policies and appoint mediators to compile the statements of different national and international societies, taking into account legal aspects but, above all, the pertinent values from a health care ethics perspective, and in pursuit of the best interests of the child.

Professional quality of life in pediatric services: A cross-sectional study

OBJECTIVE

Determine the quality of working life among the different pediatric nursing professionals, taking into account socio-demographic and work context factors, and the relationship of Burnout, compassion satisfaction and compassion fatigue between different job positions.

METHOD

Cross-sectional descriptive observational study carried out between January-March 2019 at the national territory. The professional quality of life was measured with ProQOL IV and sociodemographic characteristics were recorded. The data was encoded in Microsoft Office Excel, and analyzed with SPPS considering statistically significant differences p < 0.05.

RESULTS

A total of 68 nurses were included in the study. The results obtained show less satisfaction due to compassion in those professionals who have a permanent employment contract, as well as those who carry out their work in hospitalization positions compared to those in the oncology area. In our sample there are very high levels of compassion fatigue, in addition we observed a significant relationship between compassion fatigue and religious belief, being higher in believing professionals.

CONCLUSIONS

It's necessary to identify associated factors in the professional quality of life to propose intervention strategies and improvement conditions, requiring greater involvement of health institutions to improve the professional quality of life in pediatric nursing.

Comprehensive approach to children with cerebral palsy

Infantile cerebral palsy is one of the most prevalent diseases and the most frequent cause of disability in paediatrics. Children with cerebral palsy have complex health care needs and often require the care of a multidisciplinary team. However, in many cases there is no paediatrician with overall responsibility for coordinating follow-up. We have produced a support document intended for paediatricians coordinating the care of children with cerebral palsy. Our aim is to provide an ordered compilation of the main issues these patients may develop, to know how to identify and address them if necessary, and to establish criteria for referring these patients to other specialists.

[Comprehensive approach to children with cerebral palsy]

Infantile cerebral palsy is one of the most prevalent diseases and the most frequent cause of disability in paediatrics. Children with cerebral palsy have complex health care needs and often require the care of a multidisciplinary team. However, in many cases there is no paediatrician with overall responsibility for coordinating follow-up. We have produced a support document intended for paediatricians coordinating the care of children with cerebral palsy. Our aim is to provide an ordered compilation of the main issues these patients may develop, to know how to identify and address them if necessary, and to establish criteria for referring these patients to other specialists.

[Patient with respiratory compromise controlled by a pediatric home hospitalization unit.]

OBJECTIVE

The use of paediatric home oxygen therapy is initiated in neonatal chronic lung disease; later it spreads to other patients with chronic hypoxemia. The frequency and need for oxygen therapy is growing; this, together with the family benefits, justify the implementation of a home treatment plan. Our objective with this work was to know and describe the characteristics of the patients admitted to the Pediatric HaD Unit of a tertiary hospital, the average cost per patient of oxygen therapy during 13 years of review, and evaluate the quality of the service.

METHODS

Retrospective descriptive study by reviewing records of patients admitted to home care hospital at home of a paediatric tertiary care hospital (n=124) for 13 years (2000-2013), to learn and to describe the characteristics of the unit and these patients, and costs. After that, it was done statistical analysis through t-Student.

RESULTS

124 patients with chronic hypoxemia patients with mean age of 2.2 years. The most frequent cause was lung diseases, including ECPN as the most important. They accounted 14.2% of hospitalizations in home care hospital at home department, and 60% were achieved clinical stability. The mean cost was 1,991.1€ per patient, which supposes 93% of economical saving in comparison with conventional hospitalization (3,988.91€).

CONCLUSIONS

The use of oxygen in HaD improves the quality of life and survival of our patients, reducing the number of readmissions and hospital costs.