The public health measure I chose to that is meaningful to me is immunizations. I am a Certified Child Life Specialist. We are pediatric health care professionals that help children and families, mostly in hospital settings, cope with the stresses of hospitalization and illness. We do this by providing age appropriate procedural preparation, advocating for pain management, teaching coping strategies, self expression activities and my favorite…play!
I'm sure by now you're wondering, "How does this relate to immunizations?" Well I'm going to tell you! During my Child Life internship one of my assignments was to do a Kindergarten Clinic. I know…I know…you're asking yourself, "What the heck is that?" Well, as most of you may or may not know, when you're starting kindergarten there are a few immunizations that you must have before starting. So, the Kindergarten Clinic brings Child Life to the health department.
Just as Child Life Specialist do in the hospital, we were able to provide the same type of interventions to the children coming in to get their immunizations. We used distractions such as bubbles and iSpys and we also used a technique called comfort positioning. The nurses at the health department (who had never heard of Child Life) as well as many of the parents of the children (most of who also had never heard of Child Life) were quite skeptical at first.
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| Comfort Positioning Poster: http://lightspinnerquarterly.org |
After the first few patients, the parents are the nurses were believers! They were amazed at how smoothly the immunizations went. Did some of the children cry you ask? Well, of course. But wouldn't you if you had been poked? The difference was in how they recovered afterwards. Many of them only cried for a second or two and then continued on playing with the distractions items we had. The parents even were happy that they were able to hold their child in a comforting position. The nurses even expressed how well the comfort positioning helped them to be able to administer the shot faster and easier, causing less stress to the child.
Overall, the Kindergarten Clinic was definitely a success. I'm happy to say that as a result of the project that myself and my partner intern completed, the health department was able to get funding to hire a part time Child Life Specialist. I thought this was amazing. I think that immunizations are very important for children around the world, but I do feel that the fear that children have of getting "pokes" can cause them to have problems with fear and trust as well as unnecessary emotional distress.
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| From the Child Life Council: www.childlife.org IMMUNIZATIONS IN EUROPE According to the European Commission, it is rare for children in Europe to get immunizations and if they do get them they rarely finish the whole series of immunizations. Many of the immunizations that these children are missing are for diseases that are preventable through vaccinations. Some feel that the health care providers should be the ones educating and reaching out to parents to inform them of the benefits to immunizations. They feel that because these health care professionals are in close contact with parents early on in a child's life that they should be the biggest advocates for immunizations. I did not find much information specifically on why Europeans choose not to vaccinate. It is scary though, I saw a statistic that showed that there was an increase in childhood cases of measles by 36% in England and Wales in 2008. I'm not expert, but that's a pretty high increase. While I do feel that it is important for individuals to have freedom of choice; I also feel that in some cases we really need to just focus on what is going to be best for our children. |
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September 16, 2012 at 9:23 AM
I love this post! You seem like a well-seasoned blogger. I have many parents who talk to me about upcoming doctors appointments and their hesitations and fears about their child's reactions to shots. In the futre, I plan on print out some additional information about comfort position for parents and then discuss the outcomes with the parents afterwards. thanks so much!
September 16, 2012 at 2:54 PM
Hi Keliesha,
I agree with Lauren you seem like you've been blogging for a while. You made your post very interesting to read. I think your occupation is great and unique. I also think that it is great that you helped out at the health clinic to relax the children. I have seen children escape out of rooms running and screaming when they realized they were going to get a shot. I could use some of your bubbles the next time I have to get a flu shot, lol.