ABSTRACT
The role of pediatric hospitals in the COVID-19 pandemic changed quickly. The team of clinical nurse specialists and clinical nurse educators in a large pediatric hospital were instrumental in the institutional response through simulations, serving as change agents, collaboration, and implementing systems thinking. Leveraging the expertise of this team during this historical and unprecedented time optimized patient and associate safety as part of a pediatric hospital's COVID-19 response.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Pandemics , Child , Humans , Pediatric Nursing , SARS-CoV-2ABSTRACT
The number of children living with chronic, complex medical needs is steadily increasing secondary to advances in clinical technology and disease management. As a result, patient care requirements become multifaceted with the need for specific therapies and treatments that require extensive knowledge and skills. As these children are managed throughout the health care continuum, nurses are challenged to offer specialized care for complex conditions, while meeting the personnel and financial demands of the changing health care environment. It is well established that medically complex children can put a burden on family life, resulting in compassion fatigue for nonclinical caregivers. It is possible that, secondary to frequent and lengthy hospitalizations, nurses may also be affected. Therefore, a review of compassion fatigue or professional burnout in nurses caring for medically complex children was conducted. Appropriate identification of nurses at risk for compassion fatigue is imperative to provide the necessary interventions and support. Reducing compassion fatigue is likely to improve outcomes, including nursing turnover, nursing professional engagement, and job satisfaction, thus improving the care delivery experience for children with complex conditions.
Subject(s)
Compassion Fatigue/etiology , Empathy , Nurses/psychology , Patient Acuity , Child, Preschool , Compassion Fatigue/psychology , Disabled Children , Humans , Job Satisfaction , Nurses/statistics & numerical data , Surveys and QuestionnairesABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: The impact of malnutrition on pediatric patients in the acute care setting is significant. Hospitalized patients with malnutrition have been shown to have poor clinical outcomes. Nutrition screening is the first critical step in identifying and treating malnutrition. Although several pediatric nutrition screening tools exist, none incorporate both electronic health record (EHR) compatibility and the recommended indicators of pediatric malnutrition, a gap recently identified in a systematic review by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. The aim of this study was to prove the validity of a new version of Screening Tool for the Assessment of Malnutrition in Pediatrics (STAMP), EHR-STAMP, modified for incorporation into the EHR and inclusion of updated pediatric malnutrition indicators. METHODS: An interprofessional team modified the existing STAMP for integration into the EHR. Audits were performed by the research dietitian to assess accuracy and provide feedback for continuous improvement of the tool design. RESULTS: A total of 3553 pediatric inpatients were studied from August 2017 to May 2019. Accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity improved with each modification to the EHR-STAMP. The final version of the EHR-STAMP found 85% accuracy, 89% sensitivity, and 97% specificity, with a positive predictive value of 60% and a negative predictive value of 94%. CONCLUSION: The EHR-STAMP is a highly reliable tool in the screening of nutrition risk for pediatric hospitalized patients. The tool is easy to use, EHR compatible, and incorporates the current indicators recommended for assessing pediatric malnutrition.
