Pediatric emergency care
-
Pediatric emergency care · Oct 2024
Developing a Mental Health Screening Questionnaire in an Asian Children's Hospital Emergency Setting.
Mental health concerns among adolescents are increasingly prevalent, yet underrecognized. Adolescents with psychological distress often present to the emergency department (ED) with somatic symptoms. Due to inadequate time for rapport building and lack of familiarity of ED clinicians with psychosocial evaluation, these concerns often get missed. We describe the development and implementation of the Youth Well Being (YWB) questionnaire, a self-administered psychosocial screening tool that aims to overcome the communication barriers to psychosocial evaluation. ⋯ The YWB questionnaire is the first initiative in Singapore to enable efficient psychosocial screening of at-risk adolescents in the ED. This communication tool can potentially be used in other health care settings to enable early recognition and intervention for adolescents distressed by psychosocial problems.
-
Pediatric emergency care · Oct 2024
Observational StudyValidation of the Emergency Department Work Index in a Pediatric Freestanding Community Emergency Department.
The Emergency Department Work Index (EDWIN) is a validated overcrowding score shown to correlate well with staff assessment of adult emergency department (ED) overcrowding and the potential need for diversion. It derives from the number of staffed ED beds, attending physicians on duty, patients within each triage category, and admitted patients. To date, no study has validated EDWIN in a pediatric community ED setting. We aim to determine if EDWIN correlates with established overcrowding measures and provider perception of overcrowding within a freestanding, community-based pediatric ED. ⋯ Our findings suggest that EDWIN is an accurate tool to measure overcrowding in a freestanding, community-based pediatric ED.
-
Pediatric emergency care · Oct 2024
Implementation Barriers Encountered During a Universal Suicide Screening Program in Pediatric Emergency Departments.
Because understanding barriers to universal suicide risk screening in pediatric emergency departments (PEDs) may improve both identification and management of suicidal behaviors and ideation, this study assessed barriers to a quality improvement initiative examining the use of a novel computerized adaptive test (CAT), the Kiddie-CAT, in 2 PEDs. ⋯ Although this study was limited by a lack of complete integration into clinical protocols and was complicated by the COVID-19 pandemic impacts on PEDs, the findings suggest that considerable attention needs to be directed both to physician education and to workflow issues that could impede universal screening efforts.
-
Pediatric emergency care · Oct 2024
Clinical Characteristics, Outcomes, and Interobserver Agreement of Point-of-Care Ultrasound Detected Mesenteric Adenitis in Nonsurgical Pediatric Abdominal Pain: A Retrospective Cohort Study.
Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) in the emergency department (ED) may facilitate the diagnosis of nonsurgical sources of abdominal pain after surgical causes are excluded. Identifying mesenteric adenitis is a feasible POCUS application due to its ease of use and speed. However, there are scant data regarding the diagnosis of mesenteric adenitis by POCUS. The objective of this study was to describe the clinical characteristics, outcomes, and interobserver agreement of mesenteric adenitis identified on POCUS in pediatric patients with nonsurgical abdominal pain. ⋯ POCUS can identify mesenteric adenitis, typically a diagnosis of exclusion, in pediatric patients with nonsurgical abdominal pain, both by novice and experienced physician-sonologists. Use of POCUS may help ED clinicians identify a common cause of nonsurgical abdominal pain in children.
-
Pediatric emergency care · Oct 2024
Meta Analysis Comparative StudyEfficacy and Safety of Intranasal Fentanyl in Pediatric Emergencies: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.
Intranasal fentanyl (INF) has gained popularity in pediatric emergency departments (EDs) as an effective alternative to intravenous morphine for treating acute moderate to severe pain. Intranasal fentanyl eliminates the need for invasive access, making it advantageous for patients with minor injuries. Our study aims to provide a comprehensive evaluation of the available evidence regarding the effectiveness and safety of INF administration in pediatric emergency wards, particularly compared with other treatment options described in the literature. ⋯ Our study assessed the effectiveness of INF compared with other analgesics in pain reduction. Intranasal fentanyl demonstrated superior pain reduction at the 15- to 20-minute point but showed no significant differences at 30 and 60 minutes. Intranasal fentanyl also had a more favorable adverse event profile, with a lower risk of nausea and vomiting than other analgesics. However, no significant differences were observed in dizziness and hallucination between the groups.