While the majority of home care recipients are from the elderly population, roughly six percent of home care patients are considered pediatric. Although children appear to be little adults, they are far from it. There are many different considerations when dealing with the pediatric patient; from consent to medications and treatments. The home health aide who works with pediatric patients will most likely need additional training related to these special patients.
Treating a pediatric home care patient with medications can put the home health care worker at an increased risk for having a medication error. Pediatric patients have different medication dosages than adults. Many of the pediatric doses are an odd number of ccs or fractions of them and can be confusing. Moreover, an incorrectly placed decimal point or one that’s not pronounced enough can result in a huge overdose for the pediatric patient. Medication errors are the most common form of adverse event that occurs when taking care of pediatric patients. Additionally, these types of errors most often result in death as compared to medication errors with adult patients.
All children, regardless of their illness or disability, develop into adolescents and then into adults. The home health aide will need to be educated on the stages of development and what to expect during each stage in order to understand what it is that may be affecting her pediatric patient. It is also important to remember that these patients will go through both physical and cognitive development. As these patients develop, their needs will change. The home health aide will need to change her treatment as her patient changes.
Some pediatric home care patients may not be verbal. These patients are more dependent on their caregivers than other patients. Additionally, patients who are extremely young will depend on his or her caregiver to be aware of his or her wants and needs. This could be something as simple as knowing when it’s time to change bedding or a diaper to being aware of the child’s mannerisms to know when he or she is not feeling well or may need to see a doctor. This will come naturally as the home health aide works with the same patient for a period of time.
When a pediatric patient needs to be admitted to the hospital, it’s normally for an acute condition or exacerbation of an illness or disease. Pediatric patients can get very ill very quickly. This is why it is of utmost importance for pediatric home care patients to have the same home health aide for long periods of time. A child who has many different home health aides in and out of his or her life will most likely have more hospital admissions and their illnesses will most likely progress more rapidly than children who are treated by the same home health professional for many years.
Where a child lives can greatly affect the type of health care services he or she receives. Although the home health aide cannot change where a child lives, she can make sure that the care she gives to her patients is the same, regardless of where the patient lives or how much money the patient’s family has. Children are unable to stand up for themselves so it’s very important for the home health aide to be their voice when it comes to health care services.
Children depend on their health care providers to be their voice. Most often, the home health aide is going to be this voice because she is the healthcare worker that spends the most time with the child. Although the home health aide is capable of making many decisions for the child, remember that the child’s parents may need to give informed consent for certain medical treatments for the child.
