Abstract
BackgroundBurn injury is a significant problem in low and middle-income countries. Moreover, across regions children are more affected by burn injury than adults. The outcome of burn injury is greatly influenced by the quality of care patients receive. This care includes meeting nutritional needs, availability of resources such as dressing supplies, and skills among health care providers. This study describes factors that influence provision of nursing care to the hospitalized pediatric patients with burn injuries at Muhimbili National Hospital, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.MethodsA descriptive qualitative study was conducted among registered nurses working in the Pediatric Burn Unit. Purposeful sampling was used to recruit the participants in the study. Five in-depth interviews were done and content analysis approach was used.ResultsThe nurses in the study described how they provided nursing care to pediatric patients with burn injuries. They described the use of closed method wound dressing, as an essential skill that accelerated wound healing, decreased the risk of wound contamination, and the incidence of contractures. The nurses felt gratified when they saw patients who had sustained severe burn injury recover well and be discharged home. They appreciated the influence of teamwork in burn patients’ recovery. However, the interviews revealed systematic deficiencies that hindered provision of quality care to patients with burn injuries. The flaws included: inadequate staffing resulting in increased workload among the nurses; a lack of standard skills in burn care among nurses; lack of access to water, which is the mainstay of infection prevention control, and lack of specimen collection equipment.ConclusionsFindings in this study revealed both positive and negative factors which appear to influence care of burn patients. The positive factors (motivation) need to be maintained, and immediate actions should be taken to address the negative (hindering) factors. Large scale studies to quantify these results are deemed necessary, and public health measures are needed to prevent burn injuries in children.
Highlights
Burn injury is a significant problem in low and middle-income countries
Socio-demographic characteristics The informants consisted of five registered nurses who were working in the pediatric burn unit
One nurse had special short training on burn care in pediatrics, and others were working through experience
Summary
Burn injury is a significant problem in low and middle-income countries. across regions children are more affected by burn injury than adults. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that every year 265,000 deaths are caused by burns, and the majority of these deaths occur in low and middle-income countries [1]. It is estimated that 90% of the burn injuries which occur in low and middle-income countries is due to limited public health infrastructure [2]. It is reported that burns are the 11th leading cause of death in children aged 1–9 years, and children under five years in the WHO African Region. This region has almost three times the incidence of burn deaths in infants compared to global averages [1]. Children have a relatively thinner dermis than adults, for any given thermal insult, children typically sustain a deeper burn in comparison to adults [8]
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