The inpatient hospital care delivery to disabled children and young people and those with complex health needs

Abstract

Introduction:
Research suggests that parents of disabled children are dissatisfied with inpatient care delivery to their children.
Objectives:
- To explore the inpatient care of disabled children
- To determine the rewards and challenges of working with disabled children and young people and those with complex health needs
- To analyse contemporary nursing curricula in order to ascertain areas of teaching pertinent to disabled children and young people and those with complex health needs
- To consider compliance with policy benchmarks for disabled children and young people and those with complex health needs
Methods:
This project is part of a service evaluation for disabled children and their families that utilises different approaches. Three components of the project were designed:
1. To conduct focus group meetings using the Nominal Group Technique (NGT) with nursing staff
2. To conduct an in-depth content analysis of contemporary nursing curricula
3. To conduct an audit of compliance with policy benchmarks for disabled children and young people and those with complex health needs
Results:
Four themes have been generated from the integrated data analysis of the current service evaluation, namely: effective communication, provision of training, provision of equipment, unfavourable environment.
Conclusion:
This service evaluation has revealed that nursing staff need to improve their knowledge and expertise in the field of communication with disabled children and their families, and also enhance the quality of care delivered to this population. Additionally, it is vital that more equipment be provided, and the number of expert nursing staff caring for disabled children increased, in order to improve the quality of care for disabled children and their families.

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