Paediatricians like Dr Bindu are taking care of kids like Sophia, with her dad Rome, in the Sunshine emergency department. 84997 Picture: JOE MASTROIANNI
By LAURA WAKELY
NO-ONE visits the emergency department because they want to – usually a life is at threat and there’s uncertainty, chaos and anxiety.
The experience can be even worse when you’re just a kid, but the paediatric specialists at Sunshine Hospital’s emergency department do their best to keep the fears at bay.
Director of Paediatric Education David Krieser started working in emergency in 2002 and was the sole paediatric specialist at the time.
Ten years later the hospital has increased the number of paediatric specialists to covering around 50 hours at the emergency department each week.
More than 20,000 children present to the department each year and Dr Krieser said their needs were different to those 40,000 adults that also visited.
The diseases in childhood are different as well as the injuries, which are usually related to play or sports.
There’s also a small minority of “subtle” injuries stemming from child abuse that Dr Krieser said required specific training and experience to identify.
The hospital is hoping to catch these child-specific problems by increasing the paediatric staff in emergency and passing their knowledge on to other staff, especially young doctors.
“Children are largely blameless for their illness – they haven’t smoked or been drinking or been violent towards one another,” Dr Krieser said.
“It’s about being playful but purposeful as well.
“We use play and toys to demonstrate signs or to simply distract them from the unpleasant things happening. You’ve got to establish the trust and rapport with the parents as well, use them as an ally.”
That trust and comfort has to happen quickly, with time and the disease or injury putting doctors under pressure.
But Dr Krieser said it was important to acknowledge the fear of their young patient, by explaining what was happening or simply chatting about something distracting like their favourite football team, musician or movie.
“It will be pretty scary, there’s bright lights and strange faces,” he said.
“But we’re here to help you.”
