Relatório de estágio

Abstract

Childhood accidents and their consequences (unintentional injuries) are currently aserious public health problem due to the high death and injury rates associated to them. In themodern era, we witness the construction by society of an environment that is ever-moreunsuitable to the specific needs and vulnerability of the younger members of society, resulting inthe death and disability in incidents regarded as accidental but recognised as preventable.The recognition of this preventability is the basis for their prevention, which isconsidered today to be the most effective way to resolve the occurrence of accidents and theirconsequences and is therefore a priority in healthcare. However, a lack of awareness of theproblem by parents, children and society in general, including healthcare professionals, alliedwith a lack of knowledge of safety measures to be adopted in preventing childhood accidents,seem to be the cause for the lack of effectiveness on reducing accident numbers in Portugal.An expert in the conception and management of child and family care, with a deepunderstanding of this dual issue, the Specialist Nurse in Child Health and Paediatrics has acentral role in changing mindsets, attitudes and consequently, behaviours, not only of the childand family but also other healthcare professionals at a wide level of different contexts.It is therefore, an overarching objective of this project to contribute to the promotion ofChild Safety at the level of all the different contexts of intervention, within the scope of the dutiesdelegated to the Specialist Nurse in Child Health and Paediatrics.Using a descriptive and reflexive methodology, this report shows the action plansdeveloped in each context, community, in-patient ward and casualty department, in order toanswer the specific needs of each segment of the population and respecting the three levels ofprevention: primary, secondary and tertiary. Using this same critical analysis, the duties inherentto the role of Specialist Nurse in Child Health are analysed and other existing ones areperfected. From the results obtained from this learning process, it is important to highlight the changes in risk behaviour adopted by family care providers and nursing professionals in the context of childcare dependent on them, thus reflecting a change in attitudes in relation to the problem of child accidents. As a consequence of this process, the integration of different knowledge in the development of specialised practices in the complex art of childcare is especially noteworthy.

Date of Award	Mar 2010
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Margarida Lourenço (Supervisor)