Pediatric Common Procedures - Part 1

Course overview

Children account for approximately 30 million ED visits annually in the United States. Given these statistics, at some point, the ED nurse will be responsible for the care and management of an acutely ill or injured child. The ED nurse must be knowledgeable about the unique challenges associated with procedural care and management of the pediatric patient, from the neonate to the adolescent. In this activity we will discuss the topic of pain assessment and management, medication administration, and comfort positioning as it relates to pediatric emergency procedural care and management. After completing this activity, practitioners should be able to: identify physiologic and behavioral indicators of pain in the pediatric patient; identify which developmentally and age-appropriate pain scale to use with the pediatric population; describe safe pediatric medication administration practices and techniques using the most common administration routes; and integrate anatomical, physiological and developmental considerations in the pediatric patient to provide safe medication administration.