Pediatric Pain Assessment

The journal relates to several Pediatric Clinical Objectives. One objective the journal demonstrates is: applies knowledge of human development in providing nursing care for pediatric patients and their families. Rett syndrome is a neurodevelopment disease. It alters the developmental aspect of a child. Through Briggs journal, she explains how we should approach Rett syndrome differently and how the family can be involved.

Assessing the child’s level of understanding can help ensure an accurate result is obtained. Von Baeyer (2006) believes that when a child can fully understand a pain assessment tool and is provided with age appropriate assessment tool, it can provide a reliable source of information for the nurse. Craig and Badali (2004) believe that although self reports are a valuable input into pain assessment it is essential to factor in observation of the patients behaviour, parental involvement and factoring in the child’s social environment. Numerical Rating Scale (NRS) is an example of a commonly used self report pain assessment tool, which Von Baeyer (2006) states is very popular when assessing a child’s level of pain due to not requiring any equipment. Despite extensive research being carried out on the reliability of the NRS in an adult setting, for some reason there has been little research carried out in a children setting to prove its’ reliability (Von Baeyer 2009).

The Comfort Theory by Katherine Kolcaba would address not only pain, but help the nurse understand anxiety levels of the patient and parents, therapeutic interventions such as the use of ice packs, warm blankets, distraction techniques such as blowing bubbles and having parents engaged with the child who may be experiencing pain (McEwen & Wills, 2014). This theory also shows the importance of how families view the operations of the institute and if their child is not having their pain addressed then this may result in a negative connotation of the hospital. The overall goal of this theory looks at the outcomes of comfort and shows that comfort can be measurable, positive, nurse specific, and positive in nature (McEwen & Wills,

As stated above in my example, they need to be trained when pain medicine is warranted and when it is not. Also, how to recognize the signs of when someone maybe be approaching the line of misuse. Pertaining to children, more research needs to be conducted and programs need to be developed to prevent prescription drug abuse and misuse.8 Public health officials and school board officials need to work together to find programs that work and implement them to save our children. Some systems have been implemented in other states that allow the government to review aspects of prescription medications. These systems identify if a patient is doctor shopping or if a doctor is mis-prescribing medications.

What are some screening tools that might be of importance in this situation? (Hint: do you suspect drug or alcohol abuse here?) The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommend that mental health problems screening be incorporated into routine primary care visits for adolescents and it includes social and emotional competencies expected for each age. A brief, scientifically tested, self-administered screening questionnaire such as the Pediatric Symptom Checklist Youth Report (PSC-Y) can be used. PSC-Y is widely used in primary care settings and is a 35-item self-completion screening questionnaire that focus on internalizing, externalizing, and attention problems.

If a professional is assisting children with SAD, it is important for a professional to examine the child’s cognitive, emotional, behaviors, and social processes that are interconnected to the child’s anxiety. A theory that assists a professional treating a child with SAD is Piaget’s constructivist theory. This theory studies the child’s knowing, understanding, and learning in which constructs their knowledge. What enhances the child’s knowledge is adaption, assimilation, and accommodation (Broderick & Blewitt, 2015, p. 79). How this can assist a therapist counseling a child, is by investigating what anxiety stimulations are being experienced during social interactions and what activities are the children performing that are contributing to

The goal of the article is to give guidance on how to effectively conduct a role play in order to create meaningful learning opportunities. SGRP may enhance critical complex interviewing skills related to suicide assessment and undercovering domestic violence across all health care disciplines, which is a goal that has not yet been achievable. Clinical interviewing skills can be taught and skill retention tested using both the traditional individual role-playing and in scripted group role-playing. Supervisors can use SGRP to train up to 28 trainees synchronously in interviewing assignments as complex as uncovering domestic violence and sensitively addressing suicidal ideation. This method gets rid of “acting” from role-play

The understanding of death varies by chronological age, personality, family situations, and developmental ages. Child life specialists (CLS) play a vital role when a family finds themselves dealing with end-of-life care for a child. CLS provide education, emotional support, preparation, and advocacy to both the patient and the family. CLS provide play-based psychosocial interventions to patients and their families in order to minimize stress in the hospital environment. It is important that students emerging into the child life field are knowledgeable on end-of-life situations and are able to provide the best psychosocial care to children and families while minimizing their stress during these difficult times.

The majority of patients receiving palliative care have some level of moderate to severe pain that needs to be addressed in order for comfort to be achieved. Pain causes distress and anxiety for patients, family members and other caregivers, making it a vital aspect of care. In order for health care professionals to offer comprehensive pain relief, they must accurately assess a patient’s pain, provide pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic measures to combat pain, educate patients on any medication concerns, and perform a self-assessment regarding their own pain-related beliefs. It is through these actions that nurses will bring their patients reprieve from immense discomfort and pain, help to ease anxiety and fear, help to bring about acceptance of the disease process, and promote the ideal nurse patient

The interviews revealed that the presence of health complaints negatively influences subjective well-being and functioning in daily life. Adolescents were consistent in how they defined different symptoms, suggesting that adolescents have a common frame of reference when they rate their frequency of symptoms. However, adolescents differed in their lay perspectives on the causes of such symptoms. In some cases explanations were consistent with a stress-model of health complaints. In other cases, adolescents attributed their health complaints to developmental processes, such as growing pains, or ergonomic factors such as low quality of air in classrooms etc.