Difficult Conversations In Medicine

From a pediatric perspective, the family is an integral part of the healthcare team. Parents are the primary ally and resource in providing individualized care for their child. Even in adult patients, who they are is impacted by the relationships that they have. Serious or chronic illnesses and injuries affect the entire family. The family, then, becomes the patient, particularly when it is necessary to make lifestyle changes.

Responding to any concern has to be done in a professional manner meaning that you don’t talk to the parents or carer of the child without first following procedures.

Although confidentiality is important it is necessary to make parents aware that you may have to share information with your superior in some situations where the child may be suffering. Any kind of abuse, bullying or if a medical emergency arises confidentiality protocols must then be breached, if the child is in any way at risk.

As I grew older, the need for me to attend these visits were increased due to my proficiency in English. Fortunately, there was now a translator between my parents and the physician, however the authenticity of the translation was skeptical. This is a common issue among the children of non-English speaking families who are unable to successfully relay issues regarding health and finances from the healthcare provider themselves. Due to the complexity of the conditions and the emotional burden that it may contain, I often found myself struggling to relay these messages to my family. There were times where I found myself sugarcoating the diagnoses given by the physician because I did not understand the severity and because I did not want it to impact my family. Once I became a teenager, I realized withholding pertinent information was actually doing more harm than good.

Another big role in a pediatric nurse’s job is telling the parents disturbing news when it is necessary. Telling the family any bad news is more of a process than anyone might think. The pediatric nurse responsible for this task must first think ahead, plan for the worse, and plan for the reaction of the family. The pediatric nurse must set time apart from their busy day to be able to spend it with the family of the patient. One is never sure how the family will react or how long it will take to explain all the details and answer all the family’s questions. , According to Crawford in his journal “It is also helpful in many cases to have a witness to what was actually said as sometimes, despite all the care and attention to detail, mixed messages can be conveyed” (Crawford 3). In the article, it also states that the pediatric nurse should give open and honest information to the family. The nurse should start the conversation off letting the family know that they are here to support and encourage. The nurse should be straight forward from there on out and should refrain from using elaborate or confusing words with the child’s family. The nurse should avoid not only confusing the family but also excuses, jargon, elaborate reasoning, and the temptation to speed through the bad news without making 100 percent positive the family understands what they are being told. When the nurse has properly told the family the bad news, he or she must

When assessing a child you must be careful to take into account confidentiality before carrying out an observation you must have parents and the settings permission and not to leave confidential material lying around they must be secured in a locked cabinet. Only talk to authorized personal about confidential material. This confidentially can only be broken when a child is at real risk.

1. Confidentiality must be kept at all times. You must have the senior practitioner’s and/or the parents’ permission before making formal observations of children. Do not to leave confidential material lying around they must be secured in a locked cabinet. Line of reporting-only talk to authorized personal about confidential material. This confidentially can only be broken when a child is at real risk.

Therefore, adolescents rely on and trust their doctors to treat their issues quickly and privately. “The doctor-patient relationship is the primary focus of ethics in medicine. It is both a personal and a professional relationship founded on trust, confidence, dignity, and mutual respect” (Perez-Carceles 531). Teenagers highly value their confidentiality, and in most cases, physicians will try their hardest to protect that. Adolescents should have the right to consent to confidential medical treatments and services in order for them to receive medical attention quickly and privately, to protect themselves from broken family situations, and ensure their health.

She also asserts that testing is a violation of the child’s privacy since she can no longer choose whether to disclose her test results to her parents. Thus, healthcare providers should protect any child’s ability to choose which information she shares with her parents, particularly if that information (as is the case with late onset genetic diseases) only becomes relevant in adulthood and will affect her choices in marriage or reproduction (Davis _____).

When creating care plans for children it is so important to include the child’s family in their care as it will benefit in this case both James and his family in helping to meet his milestonesIt is especially important when creating care plans for children to include where possible the philosophy of children’s and young person’s nursing which is family centred care. (Glasper and McEwing, 2010). Family centred care does not mean that parents have to remain with their child at all-times in hospital.it Care planning is all about prioritising what is best for the patient and putting the patient first (in this scenario James) but also incorporating family centred care in the patients plan. As discussed in care plan 3, we saw how James experienced anxiety as a result of hospitalisation for the first time and how his mother also suffered from anxiety as a result of not being able to stay with James all the time. In spite of this, James’ individualised care plan alleviated this problem by assigning him a nurse that he built a trusting relationship with and by creating a home environment for him by bringing in some family photos and comforts like his blanket and favourite toys.

Parents are often scared whether their child is getting the care they need. There are times that the healthcare providers make errors unintentionally. Who is the most responsible to this type of inaccuracies? The brochure, “Prevent Errors in Your Child’s Care”, written and published by the Joint Commission on October 28, 2011 are intended for all the parents, guardian, and the primary care provider of a child. The objective of this brochure is to educate these individuals on how to properly communicate with their child’s healthcare provider in order to prevent any errors or miscommunication. The information contained in this pamphlet will serve as a guideline for the parents on how to carefully and properly address the situation with their child and the healthcare providers.

Once a child is admitted and treatment has begun, parents as well as the patient should be provided with an idea of what to expect during the course of care or drastic changes that may arise.

Bonding is very important in beginning to have the caring heart for their child who will be in the hospital for possibly 6 to 8 months depending on how the course of development goes. In the NICU it is not only the nurses and doctors that are screening our families for abuse but also Social work talks with every family and interviews them to make sure they have or get the support they need. The most important thing I tell patients parents is to love their child because that is the one thing that we cannot do. There is something about the love of a parent to their child. We can do all the medical management and use every bit of technology we have at our disposal. In an original article called Dancing around families: neonatal nurses and their role in child protection they talked about “dodgy families” these families are the ones that put up all the red flags in my mind (Saltmarsh, T., & Wilson, D., 2017). What we see with these families are parents who come and see their child for very short periods of time 15-30 minutes, excuses for not showing up, show up to the hospital under the influence, and families who are verbally abusive toward staff (Saltmarsh et al.,

information cannot be shared with anyone who is not authorized to have it without parental consent. Teachers are only permitted to discuss information that is relevant with external practitioners who

#Explain the process to your child in age-appropriate terms. Honesty is the best policy when it comes to talking to kids about a hospital stay. However, you can carefully decide how much to share without increasing their anxiety. https://childrensnational.org/specialty-care-patients/preparing-for-your-visit/talking-to-your-child-about-hospitalization