Pflege
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The opening of pediatric units for co-admission of parents brought a clear change in the professional understanding of pediatric nursing. In all areas of work this creates new challenges for pediatric nurses. Besides professional competences of caring for ill children they now require competences in guiding and counselling parents, offering them effective strategies for coping with stressful experiences in connection with the illness of their child. ⋯ Cognitive as well as emotional coping mechanisms of children are presented, from which ways to counsel parents and to care for children in painful situations may be deduced. In a care situation trusting relationships between nurse, child and parents are essential. How children build trust should be a topic of research and discussion as well as the specific characteristics of a professional relationship between nurse and patient.
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Falls among (elderly) patients are common in institutional settings. Falls may lead to fright, pain, slight or severe injuries, they may increase the duration of the hospital stay, patient discomfort and affect the quality of life. We conducted a prospective study to evaluate the incidence of patient falls in a public hospital (300 beds) in the city of Zurich and to test a fall report form to assess patients after the event. 372 falls were reported during the 12 month evaluation period from 1996 to 1997 (6.7 falls per 1000 patient days) in 9 wards with 184 beds for patients requiring both acute care and/or longer term geriatric rehabilitation. 207 (56%) of the falls remained without detectable consequences, 6 (1.6%) of the patients suffered from serious (fracture), and 89 (24%) from slight injuries (contusions, abrasions, lacerations). ⋯ No peaks during the day in the time of falling were seen. The hospital management recommended the use of an official incident reporting from (fall-protocol) for all units since January 1998. The development of a hospital-wide fall prevention program is being prepared.