Question

Compare the physical assessment of a child to that of an adult. In addition to describing the similar/different aspects of the physical assessment, explain how the nurse would offer instruction during the assessment, how communication would be adapted to offer explanations, and what strategies the nurse would use to encourage engagement.

Answer 1

There are various techniques for performing a physical assessment on a child patient which also corelates with the adult patient. The techniques generally used are inspection, palpation, percussion, and auscultation. In assessing the child patient it generally starts from the abdominal assessment, in that case, palpation and percussion can alter bowel sounds, so you'd inspect, auscultate, percuss and then palpate an abdomen.

Here we need to take steps of the primary assessment of the child patient to form a general impression, assess responsiveness, and perform a rapid scan that consists of checking and correcting problems with the patient's airway, breathing, and circulation.

As you very well know that the children mature both cognitively and physically, their needs as consumers of health care goods and services change. Therefore, planning a unified approach to pediatric safety and quality is affected by the fluid nature of childhood development.

Here when children are hospitalized, especially those who are very young and nonverbal, are dependent on caregivers, parents, to convey the main information associated with them. Sometimes children can accurately express their needs, they are unlikely to receive the same acknowledgment accorded by the adult patients, because children are dependent on their caregivers, hence, their care must be approved by parents during all encounters. Hospitalized children require acute episodic care, not care for chronic conditions as with adult patients. Planning safety and quality initiatives within a framework of wellness, interrupted by acute conditions, presents distinct challenges and requires a new way of thinking.

Children are likely to live in poverty and experience racial and ethnic disparities in health care. Children are more dependent on public insurance, such as State Children’s Health Insurance Program and Medicaid.

There is no standard norms prescribed for pediatric patient safety that is widely used. However, a standard framework for classifying pediatric adverse events that offers flexibility has been introduced.