How can you keep your young ER patients calm?
Staff-originated pediatric space entertains kids
Anyone who works in an emergency department knows that there is nothing quite so harrowing to a parent as bringing a child into the hospital. And nothing quite so difficult for physicians and nurses than working on a hysterical child whose distraught parents are nearby. That’s one reason why Highland Park Hospital, a 220-bed facility in suburban Chicago, redesigned a room as a pediatric emergency facility.
Rather than being just a curtained area, the new pediatric emergency space has a door. Nurses and staff members convinced hospital administration to part with a small sum of money to cover the cost of cartoon tiles, brightly painted carts and cabinets, and Disney character wall decals. The cheerful room is stocked with toys, crayons, paper, and books. And, according to emergency room manager Debe French, RN, BSN, ACLS, TNS, the room will eventually have a television and video recorder that can play children’s movies as another activity option.
The new room was created a couple of years ago, when an in-house pediatrics program was started. The program ensured that a pediatric specialist was on site 24 hours a day, and that all of the emergency department nurses were trained in pediatric acute life support techniques. But along with the technical advances, French says the staff wanted to provide some more creature comforts to the youngest patients.
"We wanted to do something that would provide a more soothing and distracting environment to these children," French says. And not just the patients, but their siblings, who might have been roused from bed or from some fun activity to join the family in the rush to the hospital.
All of the emergency department staff were consulted on the room’s changes. And with the assistance of Children’s Memorial Hospital, the staff even developed a pediatric crash cart for the room that ensures that physicians and nurses don’t have to search for appropriately sized medical equipment. Children’s Memorial also serves as an electronic consultant for difficult diagnoses.
Parents and kids both like the changes
While there has been no noticeable change in patient satisfaction scores since the redecoration, French says she always notices that parents immediately focus on the decor and try to get their children to do the same. "And the kids make a beeline for the books and toys."
French notes that while most hospitals are plagued with tight budgets, this is something any facility should be able to do easily. "We took a lot of the stuff that we had in the waiting room and scattered in other places and just put it in one place," she says. "I think everyone can do something to make the situation more comfortable."
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