Behavioral Pain Management for Pediatric Headache in Primary Care - Thesis Example

This toolkit would assist them in the care of the pediatric population being treated in the chaotic environment of a busy emergency trauma center. The toolkit would consist of distraction techniques, position changes, and advocacy for early pain management enhancing the emergency department experience for the child, while simultaneously improving the satisfaction of the parents. With the 2011 health care reform bill staring health care providers in the face, patient-centered outcomes are prominently vital for reimbursement purposes.

Accountability of health care providers, particularly nurses, and how the patient and their families perceive the delivery of such care greatly influence the report cards. Therefore, a dissatisfied patient or family member who documents their concerns in a letter to the Chief Executive Officer of a hospital causes great consternation. The horizon of health care is rapidly approaching with the introduction of the numerous facets healthcare reform presents. Report cards specifically honing in on patient outcome and satisfaction will greatly affect the amount of Medicare funding.

Consequently, hospitals are paying a great deal of attention to improving the patient safety status and raising the bar of patient outcomes and satisfaction. Our hospital’s CEO recently received, in a one-month period time, 3 letters to administration complaining about the lack of compassion demonstrated by Emergency Department nurses to the pediatric population. Parents of pediatric patients complained emergency department nurses were not compassionate, but rather cold and seemingly uncaring toward their ill or injured child.

During mandatory Emergency Department staff meetings, this issue was discussed at great length, and a fix-it quick plan was generated. Suddenly, with the downturn of the US economy, the main breadwinner of families is losing his/her position.  Health care coverage no longer exists and the tendency to utilize the Emergency Department of a hospital as the primary source of health care is accelerating.  Emergency Department nurses, well within their comfort zone of caring for the adult population, are experiencing an exponentially high influx of pediatric patients in the predominantly adult Emergency Department.