Pediatric emergency care
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Pediatric emergency care · Dec 2023
Health Care Provider Bias in Estimating the Health Literacy of Caregivers in a Pediatric Emergency Department.
Health literacy is a growing concern because of its effects on communication and health outcomes. One aspect of this communication is the ability of the health care provider to estimate the health literacy of a patient or their caregiver. The objectives of this study are to quantify misestimation of caregiver health literacy by providers and identify potential descriptive or demographic factors that might be related to those misestimations. ⋯ Providers often overestimate and underestimate the health literacy of parents in the pediatric emergency department. Misestimates are related to race, caregiver role, and language spoken by the caregiver. When providers misestimate health literacy, they may use words or phrases that are above or below the health literacy level of the caregiver. These results suggest a need for further health literacy research and interventions in provider education and clinical practice.
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Community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) is the most common cause of childhood mortality globally. In the United States, CAP is a leading cause of pediatric hospitalization and antibiotic use and is associated with substantial morbidity. ⋯ When indicated, antimicrobial treatment should consist of narrow-spectrum antibiotics. In this article, we will describe the current understanding of the microbiological etiologies, clinical presentation, diagnostic approach, risk factors, treatment, and future directions in the diagnosis and management of pediatric CAP.
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Sudden unexplained death in childhood is a term that encompasses apparently natural deaths in children aged older than 1 year with no discernible cause despite a thorough assessment. Definitive underlying causes vary but most cases remain largely unexplained. Research has furthered the view that sudden unexplained death in childhood is not an accident, but rather a sentinel medical event for which a thorough postmortem investigation is indicated. Emerging evidence in genetics, neurology, and neuropathology point to heterogeneous causes that in some cases share features of recognized diseases.
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Pediatric emergency care · Dec 2023
The Use of Medical Chaperones During Physical Examinations: The Perceptions of Adolescents and Their Caregivers.
A medical chaperone serves as a witness for a patient and health care practitioner during a medical examination. We sought to better understand the preferences of parents and children toward the use of chaperones during pediatric physical examinations. ⋯ Adolescents have significant differences in who they prefer to be in the room for the physical examination based on patient and provider sex in settings where they are unfamiliar with the health care examiner. Few patients and parents preferred a medical chaperone; most preferred a parent to be in the room. Patient and parent considerations should be prioritized when creating policies for the use of medical chaperones.