The children’s pediatric health assessment is an essential procedure during different age periods, which helps ensure the body’s stable development and promptly diagnose various illnesses. The pediatric patients’ assessment requires medical providers to apply specific approaches and techniques, build trustful relationships with young patients and gain cooperation with their parents. The medical providers are also responsible for addressing the children’s psychosocial concerns and modifying the assessment procedure to suit particular age groups. The current paper is devoted to describing the specific pediatric assessment peculiarities during different developmental stages of patients.
The pediatric assessment of infants covers the first 12 months of a children’s life. The first examination should be held within 24 hours after the birth to estimate the infant’s general state and address the critical health issues if necessary. The medical providers are responsible for exploring the family’s medical history to reveal the particular illnesses’ development risks (Berkowitz, 2020). It is essential to use the ethical approach to gain the required information and be tolerant while questioning parents. During the examinations, clinicians should be gentle and examine the anomalies or other health issues without harming the tiny infant’s body.
By doing so, the medical provider can avoid painful investigations that can severely damage the quality of the assessment due to the non-obedient infants’ behavior (Betramini et al., 2017). The two most relevant strategies clinician can use to explore the infant is observation and palpation (Kahsay, 2017). During the next visit to the doctor, the parents can comfort the child during the assessment, thereby helping the medical provider estimate the patient’s health state more accurately.
The early childhood assessment is challenging because of the rapid pace of the child’s body development. During this age, children express a deep emotional attachment to their parents. Thus, to assess their health state, medical providers can use a collaborative approach and invite parents to participate in the examination and conduct it in a playful form (Betramini et al., 2017). During the investigation, clinicians are advised to use the developmental and engagement approaches to gain contact with children (Berkowitz, 2020). This means that they will perform the actions contributing to the assessment success in the playful form.
The clinicians are prohibited from using the command tone and making the child perform particular actions. Toys are often used in the evaluation to comfort the child and built trustful relationships. The psychologists also recommend spelling out all the activities performed because it lowers the children’s fear as they know what to expect from the doctor (Berkowitz, 2020). The observation method should also be applied to identify the specifics of the child’s behavior addressing the psychological issues.
Concerning the questions of the communication with parents or caregivers and data-collection improvements, particular strategies will help the medical provider build efficient communication. Thus, while talking to the parents, it is recommended to choose simple words and avoid medical terms to make transparent and trustful communication possible (Kahsay, 2017). Tolerance to religious and ethical concerns can be a handful of communication skills when learning about the history of family illnesses and creating a treatment plan. Thus, the clinicians should be patient and situation conscious to build strong communication with the parents and encourage them to discuss historical family data.
Assessment of middle-aged childhood is easier to perform because they are open to communication. According to practical research, children from 5 to 10 years usually show better behavior when their peers are involved in the assessment (Berkowitz, 2020). Thus, the group examination is one of the critical approaches to work with this age category. Another point is the necessity to allow children to express their concerns and describe health issues.
The parents have no need to participate in the examination. The clinicians often use the observation, auscultation, and percussion methods for this age group (Betramini et al., 2017). Medical providers can also start a duologue to examine psychosocial issues and build trustful relationships. The strategy of addressing the interest of the child can be applied here. The communication with parents and history data collection strategies are the same as for the previous age group.
The health assessment of the adolescent has a modified structure. The most helpful approach is interviewing the patient because it allows the clinician to analyze the risk factors and build strong communication discussing the adolescent’s interests (Berkowitz, 2020). During the examination, it is essential to address the psychological issues and evaluate the general moral state of the patient. Medical providers should never oppress adolescents and immediately answer all the questions because it undermines the doctors’ credibility. It is recommended to make another appointment and discuss the problematic issues gradually (Berkowitz, 2020).
After the data collection process is over, clinicians may move to auscultation, palpation, and percussion to estimate the patient’s physical health. Concerning the parents’ communication, the problem of religion can become a severe obstacle in treatment. The clinicians must express tolerance to all presuppositions and use an understanding approach to contact to ensure that particular treatment is necessary for adolescents (Betramini et al., 2017). Thus, adjusting the language and speaking manner for the individual patient’s case is an essential communicational skill for any pediatrician.
Thus, the pediatric physical assessment for different ages and developmental stages has common and differentiated features. The approaches to gain contact with children and the procedure itself change due to the age of the patients. The investigation techniques and the communicative historical data collection strategy related to the clinician-parent relationship are similar for all developmental stages. In order to conduct successful pediatric assessments, medical providers should develop an individual approach to each patient’s situation and family.
References
Berkowitz, C. (2020). Social media and communication Berkowitz’s pediatrics: A primary care approach. Peg Mulcahy.
Betramini, A., Milojevic, K., & Pateron, D. (2017). Pain assessment in newborns, infants, and children. Pediatric Annals, 46(10), 387-395. Web.
Kahsay, H. (2017). Assessment and treatment of pain in pediatric patients. Current Pediatric Research, 21(1), 148–157. Web.