Working with children who have cancer is both one of the most challenging and humbling experiences of my professional and personal life. Some of my most remembered patients were the children and families that I cared for from their initial cancer diagnosis, through chemotherapy treatments, to remission or unfortunately occasionally death. This is an area that I am truly passionate about and it is essential that all nurses be an active part of the healthcare team in order to ensure safety and accuracy in the treatment of these patients and their families.
Kovacs et al. (2017) explain that 70% of pediatric cancer patients will have chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV) while undergoing treatment. This can be very distressing for children, negatively affecting their
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When caring for a child who is undergoing chemotherapy treatments there are numerous team members who will affect the safety and quality of the patient’s care. Some of those team members may include the pediatric oncologist, pharmacist, nurses, CNAs, phlebotomists, lab technicians, pathologists, unit secretaries, dieticians, dietary aides, housekeeping, the patient, and family, among others. CINV is treated with medications to aide in treating nausea and vomiting, however, there are many other aspects of care that need to be considered.
A teaching strategy that I would implement for this section would be for the students to create the care team for a child who is undergoing chemotherapy treatment and is suffering from CINV. For each team member, they need to address how this team member will affect this patient’s care, what their role will be, and write out the focus and goals that this team member may have to promote safety and quality care for this patient in relation to CINV. They can then share out with their classmates and peers and create a collaborative care plan for this
Working as an oncology nurse has been a life changing experience. I have grown not only as a nurse, but also as a person. My eyes have been opened to the value of life, and not just life itself, but the precious thing that is a healthy life. I cannot count the number of patients from the beginning of my nursing career until now that have told me, “Well, I just didn’t think my symptoms were a big deal” or “The doctor told me I needed additional tests but it didn’t seem important at the time and I didn’t have any money”. The lack of patient education and provider follow-up in situations such as these is disheartening to observe. Experiences I have had with patients combined with their life stories have fueled my desire to become a family nurse
Pediatric oncology has been so very rewarding in many ways, but also so very cruel in a few ways. The good days are great, but the sad days are heartbreaking. But beyond the death and the suffering, there is a whole other layer of
Health is an ever growing and developing sector. Newer diseases raise their head from time to time. These developments put new challenges for mankind. To meet the challenges put forward by the diseases and their outcomes; there is a need for scientific and strategic innovations. These innovative measures empower the healthcare sector to fight the disease and overcome the disease burden. Australian commission on safety and quality in healthcare is also one such innovative step that aims at provision of a universal healthcare service to all across Australia.
Progress and innovation are key components to discover new possibilities to fight against childhood cancer. To begin with, my interest in healthcare sparked when I was diagnosed with childhood sarcoma cancer at the age of seven. As a cancer
Pediatric oncology nurses are given the unique opportunity to make connections and build long-term relationship with their patients and families. Standard treatment protocol for many childhood cancers span over the course of years, with long-term surveillance and follow up visits after treatment has finished. Due to their patient’s chronic diagnoses and the acuity of their conditions, pediatric oncology nurses work in an environment of increased stress. The high stress environment puts the nurses at an increased risk for compassion fatigue; so it is the responsibility of both the nurse, and the institution to be aware of the symptoms and to effectively manage the condition should it arise. Without proper attention to the stress management of pediatric oncology nurses, compassion fatigue may be of concern and put patient care at risk.
Pediatric Oncology is at the heart of many organizations. There are many financial and emotional burdens associated with a loved one having cancer, and thanks to these foundations parents and children can sleep a little bit better at night knowing that someone has their back. Some of the more prominent groups that have an impact here in our community are: Alliance for Childhood Cancer, Bear Necessities Pediatric Cancer Foundation, CURE Childhood Cancer, and National Cancer Institute (Mccaul). These are organizations that make an impact in the lives of the children battling cancer and their families. Whether an organization has been started in memory of a loved one or to support a college or hospital, organizations like those listed above have
The Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN’s) goal is to prepare future nurses with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes (KSAs) that are needed to continuously improve the quality and safety of the healthcare systems within which they work. QSEN focuses on six main competencies; patient-centered care, teamwork and collaboration, evidence-based practice, quality improvement, safety, and informatics. As we have learned in earlier classes these competencies and their KSAs offer a base to help us and other nurses as we continue our education and become RNs. As we will learn in this class these KSAs go hand in hand with health assessment.
Cancer is a word which evokes many different images and emotions. Nothing in this world can prepare a person for the utter devastation of finding out someone has been diagnosed with cancer, especially when this person is a child. Over the past twenty five years the amount of research and the survival rate for children suffering with cancer have increased dramatically. Despite these successes, the funding for new research necessary to keep these children alive and healthy is miniscule and too dependent on short term grants. Of the billions of dollars spent each year on cancer treatments and research less than a third is contributed to researching pediatric cancer. Given the media focus on adult cancers, research for pediatric cancer is underfunded. In order to maintain the increasing survival rate of the children undergoing pediatric cancer and support those who have survived the disease, better funding is quintessential to develop and further promote research.
Many years from now, I will take this experience with me to better myself as a nurse. I know for the future that it is in my patient’s best interest, if I collaborate with other health care professionals. In order to maintain patient safety, I must always remember to work together with my fellow collogues to obtain a positive working environment. In order to be a good nurse, I need to always understand that I am part of a team to help those in need. I want to incorporate providing efficient care to each and every patient the best way I possibly
The overall goal for the Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) plan is to meet the challenge of educating and preparing future nurses to have the knowledge, skills and attitudes that are essential to frequently progress the quality and safety of the healthcare systems in the continuous improvement of safe practice (QSEN, 2014).Safety reduces the possibility of injury to patients and nurses. It is achieved through system efficiency and individual work performance. Organizations determine which technologies have an effective protocol with efficient practices to support quality and safety care. Guidelines are followed to reduce potential risks of harm to nurses or others. Appropriate policies
Kids are meant to be happy, play outside, go to school, and have fun. They aren’t meant to sit in hospitals, losing weight by the pound, carrying around IV poles filled with poison. It’s ridiculous and immature that we don’t have a cure for childhood cancer. The only “treatment” that we have is chemotherapy- a chemical that seems to help fight off cancer. Chemo doesn’t just fight off cancer cells though- it fights off healthy cells in your blood, mouth, digestive system, and hair follicles. The most frustrating thing about childhood cancer is that only 4% of federal funding is exclusively dedicated to childhood cancer research. It is true that more adults get diagnosed with cancer than kids, but does that mean that adults are 96% more important than children? The average age of diagnosis for an adult with cancer is age 67, and the average number of years lost is 15. 15 years are definitely many years, but not that many compared to the average number of years lost for a child- 71. Also, age 67 is a lot older than the average age of diagnoses for a child- age 6. At least the adults get to grow up and have the ability to even have cancer- some of these kids can’t even get through a fifth of their lives.
If you do not already have children, imagine that you have a son or daughter under the age of twenty-one, and they start complaining of pain somewhere in their body. When you take them to the doctor to have it investigated, and it turns out to be a tumor, or an obstruction in the area that is pushing against the organs or bones. The tumor your child has developed is a type of pediatric cancer and your child is now one of thirty-six children to be diagnosed every day with cancer in the United States (“Facts”). Being the smart and proactive parent that you are, you begin to research the various cures available for pediatric cancer in the United States. You discover that adult treatments are being used on children due to the lack of funding that pediatric cancer research receives.
Every year, 15,780 children between the ages birth and eighteen years receive a diagnosis of cancer. Approximately 1 in 285 children will receive a diagnosis before the age of twenty. Pediatric oncologists remain vital to the adolescent population because they provide different methods of treatment for cancers, manage advanced technology to find cancers, and help sick children feel at home with decorations of many characters in their offices. Without pediatric oncologists, children would remain scared and possibly unhappy with their regular doctors.
When one hears the word “cancer”, thoughts about how their previous life is about to change cloud the mind, but when one hears the word cancer for their child, it is a whole different outlook; the affects of childhood cancer are not only taken on by the patients, but also by their families; the affects can range from emotionally to physically, socially to financially, and even educationally. “Childhood cancer is considered rare, especially compared with adults. Still it’s the leading cause of death in children pre-adolescent, school-aged children” (Report: Childhood Cancer Rates Continue to Rise, but Treatment Helps Drive Down Deaths). Around 12,000 children in the United States are diagnosed with cancer every year and around one in five children that are diagnosed with cancer will die.
It’s true what everyone talks about safety – you are the key to your safety, when you do it safely you do it the right way and the best gift you can give to your family is to always stay safe. We have been taught by our parents and teachers to be cautious while doing a number of things. That’s very essential in our daily lives, because one needs to be extra cautious to prevent unavoidable accidents. However, mishaps do happen everywhere in the safest of places, no matter how careful we are in our actions. It is highly unpredictable, what’s going to happen the very next instant. There are numerous incidences we come across like simple trips, falls, cuts due to sharp objects, burns or sudden worsening of a person’s health condition, causing