The Psychology of Prehospital Pediatric Emergencies

This article will present an overview of psychological factors that affect children, parents and EMS providers. The focus will be on children less than or equal to 10 years old, because cognition and understanding start to approach those of adults after age 10. The term “younger children” will be used to refer to children less than or equal to 6 years old. No other differentiation along developmental stages will be presented in this article because this would usually require some form of developmental or psychological testing and may be unreliable in an emergency since regression to an earlier stage might occur. Child’s Perspective In contrast to adult patients, the majority of children have limited or no previous experience being injured or involved in an emergency. The situation therefore appears new, alien and unknown, and it’s therefore usually an intense experience.3
Source: JEMS Patient Care - Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Tags: Patient Care Source Type: news