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- Nursing care of the family
- Supporting family members
- Supporting Siblings During Hospitalization
- Trade off staying at the hospital with spouse or have a surrogate who knows the siblings well stay in the home.
- Offer information about the child’s condition to young siblings as well as older siblings; respect the sibling who avoids information as a means of coping with the situation.
- Arrange for children to visit their brother or sister in the hospital if possible.
- Encourage phone visits and mail between brothers and sisters; provide children with phone numbers, writing supplies, and stamps.
- Help each sibling identify an extended family member or friend to be their support person and provide extra attention during parental absence.
- Make or buy inexpensive toys or trinkets for siblings, one gift for each day the child will be hospitalized.
- Wrap each gift separately, and place them in a basket, box, or other container at the child’s bedside.
- Instruct siblings to open one gift at bedtime and to remember that he or she is in their parent’s thoughts.
- If the child’s condition is stable and distance is not prohibitive, plan a special time at home with the siblings or have spouse or another relative or friend bring the children to meet parent(s) at a restaurant or other location near the hospital.
- Have extended family members or friends schedule a visit to the child in the hospital during parental absence.
- Arrange a pass for the child to leave the hospital to join the family if the child’s condition permits.
- Providing information
- The disease, its treatment, prognosis, and home care
- The child’s emotional and physical reactions to illness and hospitalization
- The probable emotional reactions of family members to the crisis.
- Encouraging parent participation
- Preparing for discharge and home care
- In planning appropriate teaching, nurses need to assess
- The actual and perceived complexity of the skill
- The parents’ or child’s ability to learn the skill
- The parents’ or child’s previous or present experience with such procedures.
- In planning appropriate teaching, nurses need to assess
- Supporting family members
- Nursing care of the family
Keeping kids safe on trampolines and at bounce houses
October 27, 2021• By Angela Mattke, M.D., Mayo Clinic Press Editors Trampolines and bounce houses have become staples of backyards, community and family events, and
