The representatives of the Virtual Children’s Hospital draw attention to the constant pressure to which the medical staff in the pediatric emergency reception units are subjected and explain why the evaluation of children is not done in the order of arrival or according to the parents’ insistence, but exclusively according to the severity of the medical condition.
The post starts from a situation frequently encountered in hospitals in Romania: parents who claim that their own child should be consulted first.
“My child is the sickest! My child must be evaluated first!” – is one of the lines that doctors and nurses hear every day in emergency rooms and pediatric emergency units, according to specialists.
Pediatrician Mihai Craiu, the creator of the Facebook page of the Virtual Children’s Hospital, emphasizes that such pressures not only do not help, but contribute to the professional exhaustion of the medical staff.
According to the published message, many highly trained professionals have chosen to leave the system after years of stress, tension and constant confrontations with unrealistic expectations from parents or medical facility management.
“I know extremely gifted professionals, with great passion for the pediatrician / pediatric assistant profession, who simply gave in. After years of tension, loud voices, constant harassment and unreasonable expectations from parents or management, they decided to leave the system. I have in mind a very recent case of a colleague, an exceptional pediatrician and exemplary parent…”, it shows in the post.
Doctor Mihai Craiu insists that pediatrics is one of the most demanding medical specializations and that those who choose this profession do so out of vocation, not for financial gain.
“I can assure you that none of us chose pediatrics and caring for sick children to make a lot of money! In all this big world a pediatric specialist earns less than his counterpart who treats adults who have the same type of ailments.” states the author of the message, a doctor with 37 years of experience.
How to actually establish the order of patients
Specialists explain that a national triage protocol operates in all emergency units, which establishes the order in which patients are evaluated according to the severity of the condition.
“We really like what we do and want to help all the children. BUT IN THE ORDER OF THE SERIOUSNESS OF THE ILLNESS OF EACH OF THEM!”, convey the representatives of the platform.
As a concrete example, they presented the PRAM (Pediatric Respiratory Assessment Measure) system, used for the rapid assessment of children with severe respiratory problems, such as asthma attacks, anaphylaxis or other acute episodes of bronchospasm.
The score is calculated by the triage nurse and provides an objective assessment of the severity of the case, allowing rapid intervention in critical situations.
The post mentions the case of a child who achieved a PRAM score of 11, indicating a very serious condition. He was immediately transferred to the resuscitation room, where he received the necessary treatment.
Representatives of the Virtual Children’s Hospital claim that in the near future, some of these initial assessments could be done with the help of artificial intelligence to streamline the triage process and reduce the risk of errors.
The message ends with an indirect appeal to parents for understanding and trust in medical procedures, stating that the priority in an emergency unit is not decided by insistence, but by the actual condition of the child.
