Journal of Child Health Care current issue

Children's Nursing Education: Members club or street party?

Randall, D., McTaggart, I. — 2009-05-20

Creating space: hospital bedside displays as facilitators of communication between children and nurses

Lewis, P., Kerridge, I., Jorden, C. F.C. — 2009-05-20

Over the past decades there has been a marked change in the physical environment of children's hospitals and the configuration of individual bed spaces. No longer the stark, clinical spaces typical of years gone by, the modern hospital bed space hosts a variety of visual displays reflecting different aspects of the child's life. Building upon ideas introduced by Lewis and informed by a recent qualitative study into hospital bedside displays, this article discusses the role that displays can play in developing, deepening and enriching relationships between nurses, patients and their families in the paediatric hospital environment. It discusses the links between hospital and home, the specific function of the display of photographs and the nurse's role in `knowing' the patient and facilitating links between hospital and home. It concludes that nurses' conscious observations of a visually rich environment may make a positive contribution to the care that they deliver for the benefit of their patients and themselves.

Influences on nurses' scoring of children's post-operative pain

Simons, J., Moseley, L. — 2009-05-20

There is a lack of clarity as to why some nurses are not delivering optimal pain management to children post-operatively. This retrospective chart review study examined nurses' pain scoring on 175 children during the first 24 hours post-operatively. Data were analysed on the amount of assessments made, assessment scores recorded, as well as the age, gender and type of surgery performed. One-quarter of children had no assessment record of their pain in the first 24 hours post-operatively. When the pain tool was part of an observation chart, nurses recorded more pain scores. Nurses' scoring of children's pain is influenced positively by children under five years of age and those who undergo abdominal surgery. Nurses who had access to one document for recording vital signs as well as pain scores were more likely to assess and record a child's pain score than nurses who had to use a separate chart.

Dietary fibre, fluids and physical activity in relation to constipation symptoms in pre-adolescent children

Jennings, A., Davies, G. J., Costarelli, V., Dettmar, P. W. — 2009-05-20

Children with constipation are advised frequently to increase their activity levels, fluids and fibre intake. The aim of this study was to examine the prevalence of constipation symptoms in a group of schoolchildren while concurrently assessing their activity levels and fluid and fibre intakes. Eighty-four pre-adolescent children aged 7—10 years were recruited. All children completed a bowel function diary, an activity diary and a weighed food inventory for seven consecutive days. Of the children, 33 percent were found to experience constipation symptoms. Fluid and fibre intakes were higher in the children who did not experience constipation symptoms, but the results were not significant. Physical activity levels were found to be significantly higher in the children reporting constipation symptoms, with the most active children reporting low water intakes. This study has highlighted that constipation symptoms are a prevalent problem in children not seeking medical treatment.

Psychological outcomes in children following pediatric intensive care unit hospitalization: a systematic review of the research

Rennick, J. E., Rashotte, J. — 2009-05-20

A systematic review of published research on children's psychological outcomes following Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) hospitalization was conducted. Of the 275 papers published between 1970 and April 2008 which were identified using keywords, reference lists and one author's collections, a total of 28 papers met the inclusion criteria for this review. The papers fell into four categories based on the focus of the research: (1) children's PICU perceptions and recall; (2) children's psychological outcomes, broadly defined; (3) post-traumatic stress responses; and (4) general health status and quality of life. The findings suggest that PICU hospitalization can result in negative psychological sequelae in children, which can manifest themselves up to one year post-discharge. While a small number of studies have attempted to identify predictors of psychological outcome, this work remains in its infancy. The importance of the child's interpretation of the illness experience in influencing subsequent behavioral and emotional responses is highlighted.

Qualitative evaluation of a young carers' initiative

Richardson, K., Jinks, A., Roberts, B. — 2009-05-20

This focus of this article is a qualitative, evaluative study of three Crossroads young carers projects. Focus group discussions took place with 24 young people aged 11—16 years. Data were analysed using a thematic content analysis approach. The themes of the research were: experiences of being a young carer, peer support, opportunities for time out and purposeful activities. The personal characteristics of the participants give rise to a number of worrying conclusions, that relatively young people were found to be undertaking primary caring roles over long periods of time. However, the groups were found to provide opportunities for young carers to experience a positive environment, participate in purposeful activities and have the chance to develop new friendships. Nevertheless, the literature suggests that provision of such projects is inadequate and under-resourced, which may disadvantage further a group of young people who are known to come from lower income families.

Health care interventions for excessive crying in infants: regularity with and without swaddling

Blom, M. A., van Sleuwen, B. E., de Vries, H., Engelberts, A. C., l'Hoir, M. P. — 2009-05-20

This article describes two health care interventions developed to support parents whose infant cries excessively. Intervention 1 consists of advice to caregivers to bring about regularity and uniformity in daily infant care and to reduce external stimuli. Intervention 2 is the same advice accompanied by instructions to swaddle during sleep. Nurses can teach parents these interventions easily. The goal is to help infants to establish a stable sleep—wake rhythm, for overtiredness to disappear and excessive crying to stop. The approach is based on offering predictability, which helps to develop infant self-regulating ability. If the intervention succeeds, which is often the case, the baby cries less, drinks adequately, is able to fall asleep on their own and to sleep sufficiently, and therefore is no longer overtired. Parental stress is reduced, which could translate into an improvement in family health and quality of interaction between the parents and the child.