Trust your gut: why nursing intuition is built into PEWS
The importance of nursing instinct and a sixth sense should not be underestimated in sensing something is not right when caring for a child. Children’s nurses will also know the importance of discussing a child’s condition with parents and carers
In children’s care, nursing instinct is important along with discussing a child’s condition with families to identify deterioration and escalate concerns
A nurse’s gut feeling that something is not right when caring for a child cannot be underestimated.
That feeling is usually associated with experienced nurses who might develop a sixth sense that something is wrong, but not exclusively so. Instinct is valuable, can help identify deterioration and lead to an escalation in the care being provided that could save a life.
It is a reason why clinical intuition has been built into the national paediatric early warning system which is outlined in more detail in our CPD article Using the national Paediatric Early Warning System (PEWS) for England: part 2.
‘Acting on an instinct appropriately can escalate a significant concern about a child’s care’
The aim is to enable nurses to trust their gut feelings by recognising that acting on an instinct appropriately can escalate a significant concern about a child’s care despite the PEWS score or assessment outcome.
In children’s care, it is important to include parents and carers
As children’s nurses you will also know how valuable and important it is to discuss a child’s condition with their parents and carers despite a low PEWS score. Hence PEWS includes the question ‘How is your child different since I last saw them?’ with the prompts worse, same or better?
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With parents also in mind, families in England whose child is undergoing cancer treatment – which can last months, even years, and involve considerable travel to specialist centres – are set to receive financial support to cover costs and lost earnings. Total available funding announced is £10m annually by 2027.
The news was announced in February as part of the National Cancer Plan for England which also commits to improving the hospital experience for children and young people, including better food, adopting the NHS and Starlight’s Play Well toolkit, earlier diagnosis, better access to clinical trials, genomic testing, plus providing psychological and mental health support.
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