Introduction
Nurse anesthetics are certified individuals that are qualified to work in an operating room safely and efficiently. Additionally, these certified registered nurse anesthetics (CRNA) give anesthetic care, during, after, and before surgeries, ensuring the best patient outcomes. Also, these nurses do thorough patient evaluations, create and execute anesthesia care approaches, while monitoring the patient in question. This study’s main objective is to outline the experiences of anesthetic nurses when offering care to pediatric patients.
Experiences
Nurse anesthetics encounter a variety of patients of different age gaps during their professional practice. However, one of the most susceptible groups that an anesthetic nurse can encounter during anesthetization is pediatrics (Danielsson et al., 2018). Taking care of a child during anesthesia can drive a nurse’s aptitude to the brink both emotionally and theoretically. As a result, nurses can end up burnt out when offering care to children during intubation processes, or when there is a shortage of staff members. Therefore, anesthetic nurses must know about a child’s breathing system, structure, and reaction towards treatment. Moreover, a nurse anesthetic needs to understand that a child’s anatomy and reaction differs from that of an adult.
Pediatric anesthesiology necessitates a vast extensive familiarity with pediatrics and anesthesia, within legal and ethical models. Every child has a right to speak and heard of getting the correct information concerning their ailment, such as where the pain is, and so on (Danielsson, 2018). This right works in contrast, especially when there is anesthesia involved as children tend to get scared of unfamiliar circumstances. Thus, nurse anesthetists need to work with a pediatric patient and their parents to make them have confidence. Therefore, an anesthetic nurse must offer support to kids during pathological processes. The support offered by a caregiver needs to work towards getting to a child’s perspective during caregiving. Caregivers need a lot of honesty when dealing with pediatrics, and letting a child respond, and react in obedience to their worry. Yet, this is not always the care during child care, as some children may refuse to collaborate. As a result, a nurse must weigh the problem ethically and come up with other caregiving methods.
Some caregiving processes result in great pain but are necessary when considering a child’s personal decision. For example, a nurse anesthetic may encounter a child who does not want to get retrained so, it is important to embrace flexibility (Danielsson, 2018). Moreover, for trust purposes, an anesthetic nurse must meet up with a child patient before and after executing an anesthetic procedure. Studies show that kids whose anesthetic nurse visited before and after a surgical procedure showed less fear than those that did not. Additionally, to increase child and parent satisfaction, nurses must show support in caregiving procedure. For instance, a nurse anesthetic needs to embrace some level of friendly attitude on a child’s level to minimize stressful situations. Anxiety heightens the risk of having extreme pain after surgery and is known to interfere with sleep patterns.
Nurses need to put the rights of a child first and their interests ahead of everything else, meaning that all health care providers need to get conversant with children’s rights. Moreover, a nurse anesthetist has to prepare children for surgery one by one. To take responsibility of infants, nurse anesthetist needs to develop a firm relationship with the child as the child expects to have their needs met. Also, the relationship is to ease distressed caused during separation from their parents, making it hard for a child to calm down. Therefore, it is the duty of the nurse to get familiar with the child, where the parent cannot stay during operations, to offer comfort. Also, it is important that a nurse advises a child’s parent to bring a security item to soothe the child. In addition, nurse anesthetist, also have to provide soothing music, pacifiers, to aid in calming infants.
Children past experiences within a hospital setting influence future responses towards hospital visits. Also, the development stage of a child plays a big role in their level of understanding, as well as their coping mechanisms prior to a surgical procedure (Alice et al., 2015). Therefore it is the duty of an anesthetist to communicate with their patient days before a procedure gets done. Dealing with toddlers is a lot easier as compared to infants. Since this age group is capable of understanding what is said, it is important for a nurse to offer simplified explanations of what the toddler looks at, smell, and see. Also it is important to note that post operatively, a child may or may not loose some acquired skills such as potty training, therefore, as a nurse, it is important to reassure parents as well as toddler.
Offering care to a three to five year old is more complex for an anesthetist is more complex as children this age are more inquisitive, and curious. Therefore, a nurse needs to offer simplified explanations, while allowing the child to see and touch and feel some of the medical equipment. In addition, nurses need to answer queries in simple words, while taking into consideration, the things a child sees, the smell, and things a child hears (Alice et al., 2015). Also, it is a nurse’s duty to know that children within this age frame have no time concepts so communication gets done in a way a child is familiar with. For instance, instead of telling a child that a surgical procedure will take two hours, it is better to tell them that it would take the same time as a specific cartoon program takes.
As an anesthetist, it is critical to remain truthful as much as possible, as most surgical procedures have post operative pain. Most children aged three to five may have misconceptions that an operation is punishment for a wrong thing done (Alice et al., 2015). Therefore, it is important to reassure a child, and explain why the surgery is getting done. Nurses also need to explain separation from parents in a way that the child can understand. It is still the anesthetist duty to offer comfort, play before and heighten the child’s relaxation by offering transport means such as wagons, and getting carried by a nurse after a procedure.
Older children, aged five to twelve, offer a different experience level for anesthetic nurses as this age gap directs most of its energy to school and trends. Such children take into consideration their experiences, and self esteem is also very important. Additionally, this age group copes better with treatment procedures as the think logically, and has understanding of cause and effect (Alice et al., 2015). Also, his age gap is familiar with their anatomy and is able to comprehend information issued, so it is okay to involve them in procedures. Nevertheless it is better to use accurate instead of scary words such as incision instead of cut, so as to not increase anxiety. Children this age know what death is, and so it is important to reassure, so as to express confidence in the surgeon as well as other staff.
Offering care to a two year old is not the same as offering care to a teenager, as these groups are fully aware of their body functions. As an anesthetist, one needs to offer honest and in depth clarifications about their analysis, and explanations for surgical procedure. Adolescents usually focus more on the outcome, so as an anesthetist, one need to have a discussion concerning their health in a detailed manner (Alice et al., 2015). It is also common knowledge that fears of death, and pain is more prevalent in this age group. Thus, a nurse needs to offer reassurance concerning waking up during a procedure. Moreover, adolescents need privacy, and as an anesthetist, it is important to respect that while weighing the best method to offer care during procedures.
According to Danielsson et al. (2018), anesthetizing is not only a multifaceted procedure that bases its standards around care, it is also involves interaction with child and parent. Also, it is one done with an objective of ensuring the safety of a patient, and is one that gets influenced by doctors, and the caregiving team (Dannielsson et al., 2018). For anesthetist nurse to interact with a child patient ensures that a child feel like an important person, which in turn bring about empowerment. Furthermore, nurse anesthetists find it challenging to anesthetize children. Consequently, to achieve anesthesia procedures, nurses need to go the extra mile by making eye contact and gaining confidence.
Gaining parental trust and confidence ensures that a parent is calm, and that in turn, ensures that a child is calm. Parents play a major role in the outcome of anesthetized children, even when a child is in pain. To ensure that a parent is fully involved in their child’s treatment, it is critical to inform parents of the procedures. Consequently, backing prom a parent helps an anesthetist to create a good relationship with a child irrespective of the nurse’s expertise. In contras, nurses who have no backing from a child’s parent, or have stress out parents, results in signs of stress, or pressure on the nurse. (Dannielson et al., 2018)Besides, no matter learned a nurse is they cannot convince a child to collaborate, especially without a parents backing.
During anesthetics, nurses know how critical it is to interact properly with other experts, when dealing with children. Moreover, they know how important it is when any of the experts make better contact with a child. However, it is critical that a lower number of staff be available during clinical procedures so as to evade chances of distressing a child or their parent. Nonetheless, teamwork is very significant for cases when an unexpected incidence happened. On the other hand, it is important to focus on preparation, and planning during the meeting of a child. For instance, it is advisable to have all medications ready, so as to have control and so as not to appear stressed out during the meeting. Lack of preparations could get stressful especially when a parent asks about a procedure and the nurse has no knowledge of it.
Challenges
During different medical procedure, children aged three to five may get exposed to procedures that are terrifying and painful, resulting in restraints. Nevertheless, these alternatives are implemented to ensure safety of surgical procedure if a child resists. However, such alternatives bring about questions about whether it is morally wrong. Studies show that use of restraints to accomplish any procedure medically is wrong and unethical as it exposes children to traumatic situations. On the other hand, it is the anesthetist duty to assess veins properly before the insertion of needles so as to minimize pain linked with insertion of cannulas (Kelly et al., 2017). In contrast lack of proper vein assessment may cause painful needle insertion that may in turn result in resistance.
Anxious children needs to get controlled through, watching friendly videos, having clown doctors, or having a parent present during procedures. Anxiety may result in children refusing treatment, so it is important for an anesthetist to keep a child calm. On the other hand, children with behavioral challenges may pose difficulty in calming down (Kelly et al., 2017). For instance, children with ADHD need consideration during planning for a clinical procedure. Also it is critical that nurses and parent communicate concerning obedience of patience to evaluate the likelihood of cooperation. For instance, a nurse needs to understand how often a challenged child can get disrupted, signs that a child is angry, specific triggers and ease approaches parents use.
Some behavioral challenged children may pose extra illnesses such as seizures and delayed growth. Therefore, one needs to be careful before anesthetizing, because anesthetic medication may differ from other patients, and these patients may not need relaxation medication. For example, such patients may only require the facilitation of a quiet room, and minimal waiting time to reduce anxiety (Kelly et al., 2017). Therefore, nurses need to prepare ahead of time to facilitate these without increasing the anxiety levels of a patient. Consequently, raised distressed levels diminish chances of a cooperative procedure, which may result in restraints. On the other hand, an un-well child may get more stressed out resulting in delay of procedure as patient does not qualify for anesthetic procedure due to ailment. Nevertheless, due to the critical level of patient, anesthesia may still be done, but in a monitored manner.
Conclusion
Nurse anesthetist requires more than the expertise concerning drugs, but needs the knowledge about compassion and children, as well as their fears. Moreover, nurses need to work towards building the confidence of children, which is brought about through reassurances. For that to happen, anesthetic nurses needs to be in a hospital setting that embraces teamwork as these works towards ensuring the safety of a child. Consequently, this results to positive patient, caregiver outcomes, and patient satisfaction