We are listening- to children

Hello my name is,

Pamela,

I’m the Senior Charge Nurse for the Paediatric Ward at Wishaw General Hospital where we provide inpatient care and treatment for children and young people aged from 0 to 16.

We know that hospital can be can be frightening, confusing, lonely, frustrating and upsetting for the children and young people in our care and the range of emotions experienced by parents could fill the rest of this page!

We work very hard to provide the best possible care for our patients as well as providing support to families throughout their child’s admission to hospital.

We aim to provide person-centred care for all of our patients, all of the time. One of the five elements of person-centred care is “What matters to you?” Knowing the answer to this question is fundamental to our ability to provide the individualised treatment and care that each patient needs in a way that will benefit them most.

Some of our younger patients can find it difficult to verbalise what matters to them so we encourage them to produce a poster which can be placed on the wall by their bed. This enables any staff working on the ward to identify with what is important to them and relate to their needs. There are some examples below:

For example – this poster identified “My Dog-Charlie”. Staff were able to arrange for a pass so that the child could leave the hospital with their parents to walk the family dog. The benefits of being able to arrange something like this are really tangible and contribute positively to the patient’s treatment and rehabilitation.

We also work hard to ensure parents are well informed and involved in decisions about treatment and care when appropriate and that they are able to support their child during episodes of treatment.

Knowing the possible stresses on the child and the parents that an overnight stay in a strange environment may cause, we have recliner chairs on the ward so that one parent or carer can stay with their child. These are well used and we are currently in the process of getting some of our recliners recovered.

If you have an experience of the Paediatric Service you would like to share, please speak to a member of staff, respond on Patient Opinion, or visit the “Your Feedback” Section of the NHS Lanarkshire website to see the other ways to get in touch www.nhslanarkshire.org.uk