Real Case in England: Report finds that child abuse are carried out under guise of medical treatment

 

Child abuse are carried out under guise of medical treatment

ENGLAND - An independent inquiry into child sexual abuse found that perpetrators were most commonly male healthcare practitioners with routine clinical access to children between the 1960s and 2000s. As a result, neither their colleagues nor the children or their parents questioned their actions. 

One survivor said: “Under the guise of performing a medical test, called a high vaginal swab, he used that as an opportunity to rape me. I thought I was dying, but I also thought I had to be very quiet, because it was the right thing to do.” 

Only a quarter reported they were able to disclose the sexual abuse as a child. In some cases, healthcare professionals dismissed children who reported abuse as "sick" or "crazy."

The report, published on Thursday, discovered that, in addition to healthcare professionals' positions of trust and authority, other factors that enabled sexual abuse to occur included physical isolation in private consultation rooms and victims' lack of knowledge about medical procedures.

Pediatric care in Islam: Islam Persepectives

 

Children are a wonderful blessing and gift from Allah given to parents. At particular times, they are also amanah for the parents, chosen people from Him that should take care of them with a high gratitude and love. However, understanding the needs of children is, indeed, never an easy job. That is why parents need a lot of patience to raise innocent children in good and positive development. This also applied in health science which has classified a special care for children especially in hospital and even public clinic, pediatric care.

Pediatric care is of utmost importance even though there are many hardships during the process of taking care and protecting the children especially from sickness and disease  in order to get a healthy growth of children. In fact Allah has reminded us in the Quran that children may even be a trial for parents. This can be related in hospital or even clinic situations whenever the triumphs and tribulations of life are a test and children are no exception. Therefore, there is no reason to neglect children from protection, nurse and treat them well because they are just young and pure human beings that need us to pay attention to them. 

“Your wealth and your children are only a trial, whereas God, with Him is a great reward (Paradise).” (Quran 64:15)

Muslim are adviced for raising and rearing children must cover all aspects of life. For instance, physical, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing are all of equal importance. To note that healthcare providers should always cover the rights of children in the service of a health care centre instead of maltreatments toward paediatricians until beyond the limits that can lead to violence.

In the Quran, Allah (swt) says: “Help one another in acts of piety and righteousness. And do not assist each other in acts of sinfulness and transgression. And be aware of Allah. Verily, Allah is severe in punishment” (Quran 5:2).

Indeed children and future generations will be the leaders of tomorrow and thus their upbringing is a matter of great importance and key to whether we can maintain a peaceful, respectful and orderly society. Besides parenting, healthcare professionals have also the single greatest influence on a child’s development and understanding the environment a child grows up in contributes to their emotional, physical, social and intellectual development. They are of utmost importance to observe whether a child will grow to become a healthy and happy adult. Thus, positive paediatric care is essential to help others especially children that might save future societies and to foster peace at home and in communities.

by julia syakirah

Ways to Improve Pediatric Patient Care in Malaysia

 Adequate knowledge of pediatric-related pain is required for effective pain management. As a result, a variety of measures can be implemented to improve the quality of management in Malaysian hospitals.

1. Build Relationships

As a pediatric caregiver, you will need to develop relationships with your pediatric patients and their parents. Begin with greeting the patient. This conveys to them that you value them. For compliance, you must gain the trust of your pediatric patient. After greeting the child, you can speak with the parent.

It is also a good idea to be interactive. Allow the child to examine your stethoscope before beginning a lung examination. Before you put the stethoscope in your ears, have them practice taking deep breaths.

2. Create a Comfortable Environments

Pediatric patients may be terrified of the sterile examination room. Make sure there are books, toys, and even crayons to use on the exam table.

In order to put pediatric patients at ease and calm their nerves, it is necessary to create a welcoming environment.

3. Do Homework

Get a sense of what different age groups are enjoying right now. This could entail watching an episode of Upin Ipin or downloading Tiktok. Keep up with popular children's shows, technology, and other topics to keep the conversation going.

Play with a young child who is slow to warm up. Build a Lego car, colour a picture, or play with Play-Doh. The language of play is understood by all children. Play also serves to divert their attention away from the more frightening aspects of the visit.

4. Make Eye Contact While Speaking

It is possible that standing over your pediatric patients will make them feel uneasy. If they are on the floor, kneel down to speak with them. 

5. Let Them Help

Pediatric patients are naturally helpful. Allow them to assist you in preparing for the assessment, hold the Band-Aid, or first listen to your heart.

A career as a pediatric nurse is challenging but enjoyable. Let your guard down and rediscover what it is like to be a kid again. When communicating with pediatric patients and their parents, this will come in handy.

- Haleena Shakira

How is pediatric care different from geriatrics?

 We had learnt a lot about pediatrics from the past few weeks, now let us compare pediatrics and geriatrics care. But before that, allow me to introduce what geriatric is through the video below :

Now that we know what geriatric is, we can list down some of the differences between pediatrics and geriatrics care.

DECISION MAKING

Pediatric patients 

• Parents will be involved and discuss with the patient to decide the treatment to be taken. The stereotype of making decisions for pediatric patients only involving parents should be diminished as the children also have the right to their future. The patients that can be in the discussion is patient who can understand the situation that they are in should be included in the discussion of decision making ( ex: a 6-year-old patient).   

Geriatric patients

• The children of the patient will be involved in decision making. Yet, the patients will be dominant to make the decision while the children are the ones who give support and suggestions.

COMMUNICATION

Pediatric patients

• Healthcare personnel need to communicate at their eye level so that we caught their attention to listen. 

Geriatric patients

• As a person starts to age, the hearing ability will begin to decline. Thus, it is proper for the healthcare personnel to face the patient so that the voice can be heard clearly.

SUPPORT (NO OF HEALTHCARE PERSONNEL REQUIRED)

Pediatric patients

• Usually, pediatric patients have smaller built as they are still in the process of growth, so only a few healthcare personnel are needed.

Geriatric patients

• Geriatric patients fall in the ‘elderly’ stage of the human life cycle where they are not as strong as before. Thus, they will need support from others to move. Quite a number of healthcare personnel needed to support them to move because of bigger built and heavier body mass compared to pediatric patients.

-Fasehah Hani

Reference :

https://consultqd.clevelandclinic.org/bioethics-from-pediatrics-to-geriatrics/ 

Criterias Needed for Pediatric Caregivers

Generally, caregiver with more  knowledge are expected to manage the pediatrics' better. Therefore, there are numbers of criteria that must be met in order for them to be able to provide quality care to pediatrics.

1. Good communication skills: A caregiver should be able to communicate effectively with the pediatrics. This includes their behaviour, health progress with potty training and interactions with the other children at the facility.
2. Child development knowledge:  A caregiver who has worked with children before, has a background in child development, or has years of daycare experience is more likely to know what makes them tick.
3. Have patience: In general, we know that early childhood will be a bit of a patience test. An impatient caregiver is more likely to lash out at small children or children who refuse to share.
4. Nurturing:  A caregiver with a nurturing personality can provide pediatrics with a sense of security and comfort.
5. Be responsible: A caregiver should constantly supervise the children and make responsible decisions to ensure their safety.

- Haleena Shakira

How to take care of pediatric patients?

 Catering pediatric patients required us to master the know-how to ease the process. They have their own tantrum which can be hard to control. Here is some know-how to cater for the little buddy :

Let them open up to you

    Children can be defensive when meeting strangers, thus, as someone who has to deal with pediatric patients, we have to introduce ourselves in a manner that caught their attention.  Then, we start to have a little chit chat with them to help them open up to us. For instance, we can talk about the topic that they are interested in.

Build trust

    When the patients open up to us did not mean they trust us yet. Therefore, we have to gain and build trust. One of the ways is to listen to them. When they see and felt that we listen to them, trust will slowly build between patients and us. Especially teenagers. 

Create comfortable environment

    From a children’s point of view, the hospital is perhaps one of the scary places for them. To lessen the feeling, we as healthcare personnel should create a brighter ambience for the children to be comfortable.

Communicate on their level

    The range of age for pediatric patients cover from 0 to 18 years old which have different levels of maturity. Hence, we have to use a simple expression so that they understand the information that we are trying to deliver. To illustrate, when pediatric patients come to a radiology department for an examination, we need to explain the procedure using the vocabulary of their level.

Engage with parents

    For pediatric patients who are too shy to speak, we can try to gain information with assistance from the parents.

- Fasehah Hani

Reference :

https://etactics.com/blog/pediatric-patient-parent-communication-tips 

https://medschool.ucla.edu/body.cfm?id=1158&action=detail&ref=806 

Role of Pediatrics Caregiver

Basically, pediatricians can be called as second parent for babies and kids in hospital and healthcare centre. They are also Healer Of Children who do their best to protect a beautiful and young children. In conclusion, the role of pediactrician are most important to make sure can address child's health in good wellness. 

1)PRESERVE A SECURE, FRIENDLY AND HEALTHY ENVIRONMENT

-Ensure pediatrics patient safety by limiting harm

-Allow children enjoying hospital's environment by amusing them with toys

-Prevent children fall sick by maintaining a clean and sanitary surroundings

2)HAVA AN EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION WITH CHILD'S PARENT AND FAMILY RELATIVES 

-Able to educate children and parents in the establishment of good habits and promote healthy lifestyle

-Helps parents in decision making as a guidances so they are not lost by giving some opinion and should not force them

-To get an informed consent from patient's parent for further treatment

3)PROVIDE A QUALITY CARE

-Taking a good care with a proper attitudes and acquired skills during the management of the patient

-Protect the children from any violation such as abuse, maltreatment and discrimination

4)FACILITATE THE ACKNOWLEDGE OF MEDICAL CONDITION AND MANAGEMENT PLANS TO PATIENTS AND PARENTS 

-Always shares the updated news that related to child's health and well-being to guardian

-Allows parents to participate in discussion of child's care so they can understand, get clear information and able to cope with the condition

5)GIVE MORAL SUPPORT AND COUNSELING 

-Provide appropriate counselling and psychosocial support for patient and also parents to strengthen their capability and positivity

-Offers health motivation for parents to change bad behavior for sake of their child's health so that they can live in healthier way

by julia syakirah