Patient- And Family-centered Care Research Articles

Patient- and Family-Centered Care and the Role of the Emergency Physician Providing Care to a Child in the Emergency Department

Patient- and family-centered care (PFCC) is an approach to health care that recognizes the role of the family in providing medical care, encourages collaboration between the patient, family, and health care professionals; and honors individual and family strengths, cultures, traditions, and expertise. Although there are many opportunities for providing PFCC in the emergency department, there are also challenges to doing so. The American Academy of Pediatrics and American College of Emergency Physicians support the following: promoting patient dignity, comfort, and autonomy; recognizing the patient and family as key decision makers in the patient's medical care; recognizing the patient's experience and perspective in a culturally sensitive manner; acknowledging the interdependence of child and parent as well as the pediatric patient's evolving independence; encouraging family member presence; providing information to the family during interventions; encouraging collaboration with other health care professionals; acknowledging the importance of the patient's medical home; and encouraging institutional policies for PFCC.

Development of night time temperature rhythms over the first six months of life.

Continuous recordings of night time rectal temperature were made at regular intervals over the first six months of life in 49 babies. In the first two weeks of life rectal temperature changed little overnight, but by 6 weeks of age rectal temperature at bedtime was significantly higher than later in the night. By around 12 weeks of age sleeping deep body temperature fell below 36.5 degrees C, and by 16 weeks of age all babies exhibited a consistent rhythm of rectal temperature. This fell by about 0.8 degrees C within two hours of bedtime, and then remained low until an hour or two before waking. As babies got older the mean interval between bedtime and first disturbance of parents got longer. Sleeping rectal temperature fell below 36.5 degrees C at about the time babies slept for seven hours. From 6 weeks of age, as individual baby's rectal temperatures fell more with sleep, sleep got longer.