Children Are Not Miniature Adults: Child-Friendly Healthcare in Practice

Abstract

Although, as eloquently stated by Swiss developmental psychologist Jean Piaget, "Children are not miniature adults" (Piaget, 2001), it remains common in pediatric clinical nursing practice to encounter viewpoints such as "Be patient and it will pass!" and "Is it really that bad?" as well as insensitive comments such as "Cry again, and I'll…" Dealing with children and their families during invasive treatments is a daily challenge as well as source of fulfillment for pediatric nurses. The concept of child-friendly care centers on providing support and care that addresses the needs of both the child and family to help them adapt to various situations within the healthcare environment (Lookabaugh & Ballard, 2018). Child-friendly healthcare must be grounded in the recognition of children's rights, which includes the right to health and the right to healthcare (Lenton & Ehrich, 2015). Strategies, policies, and environmental transformations are necessary to translate this concept into practice. One related strategy commonly used in pediatric nursing practice is therapeutic play, which encompasses instructional, cathartic, and physical health promotion categories (Hockenberry et al., 2023). By engaging in therapeutic play, hospitalized children can better comprehend the tests or treatments they are about to undergo, alleviate their fear and pain, and develop healthier behaviors. It is also crucial to approach long-debated issues such as whether children and adolescents should visit family members in intensive care units from a child-friendly perspective. German scholars Brauchle et al. (2023) proposed recommendations for child-friendly visitation policies that consider the prerequisites and responsibilities of medical staff, parents, and children. In recent years, Taiwan has made great strides in integrating child life specialists and art and music therapists into hospital medical teams. This inclusion is helping families better adapt to the medical environment and better cope with medical and treatment situations, fostering more-positive medical and nursing experiences (Fang et al., 2020). Furthermore, reconstructing the medical environment for children; designing safe and healing spaces (Chang, 2021); and providing overall-friendly physical, psychological, social, and spiritual care to children and their families are essential. Each of the three topics in this column reflect the relationships between pediatric emergency nurses and, respectively, patients, and the healing functions of music therapy and art therapy, and provide important insights into the world of children through the lens of child-friendly care.