Journal of child health care : for professionals working with children in the hospital and community
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The persistence of inadequate treatment of pain in children could be due to lack of knowledge and nurses' failure to assess and manage pain effectively. It is recognized that effective pain assessment leads to more satisfied children and families. ⋯ When nurses were asked how much time they needed for education on these tools, 83 percent wanted only two hours, although almost half stated lack of knowledge or education as the main obstacle to use of a pain assessment tool. The inconsistencies in these replies could reflect the conflicting demands between the nurses' need to increase their knowledge of pain assessment while managing a heavy workload.
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J Child Health Care · Mar 2004
Parents' and staff's perceptions of parental needs during a child's admission to hospital: an English perspective.
The aim of this research was to compare perceptions of parental needs held by parents of hospitalized children and the staff caring for them, so that potential communication breakdown could be avoided. A well-trialled tool was used with a convenience sample in paediatric facilities in a National Health Service trust in north-east England. ⋯ Parents declared themselves more independent than the staff perceived them to be. Such findings facilitate improvements in communication between parents and staff and can be included in education programmes for both.
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J Child Health Care · Dec 2003
Drug errors: what role do nurses and pharmacists have in minimizing the risk?
A multi-professional project was carried out in order to identify the interventions that nurses and pharmacists make in relation to drug administration (an intervention refers to 'the process of querying a prescription with a prescriber'). The project highlights the importance of both these occupational groups in identifying prescribing errors and preventing them from being translated into actual medication errors. It also identifies the need for adequate training for nursing and medical staff, along with system changes, in order to minimize the risk of medication errors.
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J Child Health Care · Sep 2003
Parent's management of their child's pain in the home following day surgery.
When a child returns home following day case surgery, the parent becomes responsible for the assessment and treatment of their child's pain. Pain is documented as being the most common complication following day case surgery. The study investigated parental management of their child's pain at home following day surgery. ⋯ Parents were contacted by telephone in their own home 24 hours after day surgery and, through a structured interview schedule, were asked a series of questions relating to their child's pain management and discharge information. The results indicated that parents managed their child's pain in the home if provided with information and suitable analgesia on discharge. Instigation of telephone follow-up for parents was upheld as a measure to provide support to parents, as 79 percent of parents found the telephone call useful.