Palliative care is a medical action taken by health workers for patients experiencing serious illness. Palliative care is expected to relieve pain and symptoms experienced by patients, and provide emotional, social, and spiritual support for patients and their families.
With the implementation of palliative care provided by nurses to patients, it aims to improve the quality of life of patients with serious illnesses, as well as provide support to the patient’s family. Through palliative care, it is expected to be able to meet all the needs needed by nurses and ensure that the patient is free from any pain. This was conveyed by Ns. Efa Apriyanti, S.Kep., Msc., as moderator of the 3rd anniversary special webinar at the Universitas Indonesia Hospital, on Friday (28/01).
Ns. Esti Nur Rohmah S.Kep. said that providing palliative care is important to patients, one of which is pediatric patients. Pediatric patients is a branch of medical science that concentrates on the prevention, diagnosis, treatment and management of all types of diseases in young patients, namely infants and children to adolescents or young adults. The maximum age for pediatric patients is between 18 and 21 years.
Through the topic “Monitoring Hydration Status in Pediatric Patients” Ns. Esti explained that pediatric patients and adults are certainly different. In pediatric patients, most of their communication is still limited, thus requiring the role of parents as companions during treatment. In her explanation, she said there are benefits of successful fluid monitoring not only for patients but also for nurses and hospital institutions.
Based on WHO data released in 2019, Indonesia is in the top 10 countries in the world with a mortality rate of children under the age of 5 years. “Of course this is not something we should be proud of, and certainly as medical personnel we must evaluate ourselves and improve the provision of medical services, one of which is palliative care,” she said. Of the many diseases that cause death in children in Indonesia, diarrhea is still at the forefront as the disease with the highest death rate.
For this reason, it is necessary to have a good understanding of the clinical manifestations and course of illness of pediatric patients in order to anticipate the risk of fluid imbalance in pediatric patients during treatment. Monitoring and evaluation of hydration status is also important to be carried out on an ongoing basis from the patient until discharge. For pediatric patients, parental involvement is very supportive of patient morale so as to increase patient recovery.
In this regard, Ns. Ina Islamia S.Kep., through the presentation of the material entitled “Evidence-Based General Care in High-Risk Neonates” explained how important it is to know the health condition of babies at birth. This is done in order to avoid the risk of disease that can actually fataly endanger the health of the baby. Ns. Ina said high-risk infants could have vague and non-specific clinical signs of disease. If not recognized immediately, the disease can progress to cardiorespiratory failure.
Furthermore, Ns. Ina said, things that need to be observed when newborns or neonates are by looking at skin color, consciousness status, baby activity, baby’s posture, and muscle tone. For babies who have a history of congenital heart disease, Critical Congenital Heart Disease (CHHD) screening measurements need to be taken. Checking is done when the baby is 24-48 hours old. Measurement is done by measuring saturation with pulse oximetry on the both hands or feet.
At the end of the event, Ns. Zumaidah S.Kep., as one of the speakers concluded that palliative care is a concept of care that moves on the coordination of multidisciplinary professions to children with progressive “Life-Limiting” conditions, and also their families. Before concluding the seminar, she emphasized that this provided care covers all aspects such as physical, social, emotional, and spiritual as well as the child’s environment and family choices. She hoped that the provision of palliative care services can improve the quality of life of pediatric patients and reduce mortality rates in Indonesia.
