Emergency nurse : the journal of the RCN Accident and Emergency Nursing Association
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This article offers a guide to history taking and initial assessment of children with respiratory ailments, outlines the risk factors involved and describes referral procedures to children's services. It also presents two case studies of children who had been assessed in the author's emergency department and who required inpatient admission for different types of respiratory illness.
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One of the most important aspects of care for children in emergency departments (EDs) is the initial assessment of their conditions and circumstances. Paediatric nurses, or other nurses who have had adequate training and skills in the care of children and younger people, should use the appropriate tools to undertake these assessments so that they can identify and manage children's physical, mental or social problems. This article discusses the use of such tools in the initial assessments of children at Ipswich Hospital NHS Trust ED, and how this use has improved practice while raising the profile of paediatric emergency care.