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Paediatric pandemic planning: children’s perspectives and recommendations
Author(s) -
Koller Donna,
Nicholas David,
Gearing Robin,
Kalfa Ora
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
health and social care in the community
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.984
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1365-2524
pISSN - 0966-0410
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2524.2009.00907.x
Subject(s) - psychosocial , pandemic , medicine , stakeholder , health care , family medicine , nursing , covid-19 , public relations , political science , infectious disease (medical specialty) , psychiatry , disease , pathology , law
Children, as major stakeholders in paediatric hospitals, have remained absent from discussions on important healthcare issues. One critical area where children’s voices have been minimised is in the planning for future pandemics. This paper presents a subset of data from a programme of research which examined various stakeholder experiences of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreaks of 2003. These data also generated recommendations for future pandemic planning. Specifically, this paper will examine the perspectives and recommendations of children hospitalised during SARS in a large paediatric hospital in Canada. Twenty‐one ( n = 21) child and adolescent participants were interviewed from a variety of medical areas including cardiac ( n = 2), critical care ( n = 2), organ transplant ( n = 4), respiratory medicine ( n = 8) and infectious diseases (patients diagnosed with suspected or probable SARS; n = 5). Data analyses exposed a range of children’s experiences associated with the outbreaks as well as recommendations for future pandemic planning. Key recommendations included specific policies and guidelines concerning psychosocial care, infection control, communication strategies and the management of various resources. This paper is guided by a conceptual framework comprised of theories from child development and literature on children’s rights. The authors call for greater youth participation in healthcare decision‐making and pandemic planning.