Developing rights-based standards for children having tests, treatments, examinations and interventions: using a collaborative, multi-phased, multi-method and multi-stakeholder approach to build consensus.

Children continue to experience harm when undergoing clinical procedures despite increased evidence of the need to improve the provision of child-centred care. The international ISupport collaboration aimed to develop standards to outline and explain good procedural practice and the rights of children within the context of a clinical procedure. The rights-based standards for children undergoing tests, treatments, investigations, examinations and interventions were developed using an iterative, multi-phased, multi-method and multi-stakeholder consensus building approach. This consensus approach used a range of online and face to face methods across three phases to ensure ongoing engagement with multiple stakeholders. The views and perspectives of 203 children and young people, 78 parents and 418 multi-disciplinary professionals gathered over a two year period (2020-2022) informed the development of international rights-based standards for the care of children having tests, treatments, examinations and interventions. The standards are the first to reach international multi-stakeholder consensus on definitions of supportive and restraining holds.    Conclusion: This is the first study of its kind which outlines international rights-based procedural care standards from multi-stakeholder perspectives. The standards offer health professionals and educators clear evidence-based tools to support discussions and practice changes to challenge prevailing assumptions about holding or restraining children and instead encourage a focus on the interests and rights of the child. What is Known: • Children continue to experience short and long-term harm when undergoing clinical procedures despite increased evidence of the need to improve the provision of child-centred care. • Professionals report uncertainty and tensions in applying evidence-based practice to children's procedural care. What is New: • This is the first study of its kind which has developed international rights-based procedural care standards from multi-stakeholder perspectives. • The standards are the first to reach international multi-stakeholder consensus on definitions of supportive and restraining holds.

Clinical diagnosis in paediatric patients at urban primary health care facilities in southern Malawi: a longitudinal observational study.

BACKGROUND: Despite health centres being the first point of contact of care, there are challenges faced in providing care to patients at this level. In Malawi, service provision barriers reported at this level included long waiting times, high numbers of patients and erratic consultation systems which lead to mis-diagnosis and delayed referrals. Proper case management at this level of care is critical to prevent severe disease and deaths in children. We aimed to adopt Emergency, Triage, Assessment and Treatment algorithm (ETAT) to improve ability to identify severe illness in children at primary health centre (PHC) through comparison with secondary level diagnoses. METHODS: We implemented ETAT mobile Health (mHealth) at eight urban PHCs in Blantyre, Malawi between April 2017 and September 2018. Health workers and support staff were trained in mHealth ETAT. Stabilisation rooms were established and equipped with emergency equipment. All PHCs used an electronic tracking system to triage and track sick children on referral to secondary care, facilitated by a unique barcode. Support staff at PHC triaged sick children using ETAT Emergency (E), Priority (P) and Queue (Q) symptoms and clinician gave clinical diagnosis. The secondary level diagnosis was considered as a gold standard. We used statistical computing software R (v3.5.1) and used exact 95% binomial confidence intervals when estimating diagnosis agreement proportions. RESULTS: Eight-five percentage of all cases where assigned to E (9.0%) and P (75.5%) groups. Pneumonia was the most common PHC level diagnosis across all three triage groups (E, P, Q). The PHC level diagnosis of trauma was the most commonly confirmed diagnosis at secondary level facility (85.0%), while a PHC diagnosis of pneumonia was least likely to be confirmed at secondary level (39.6%). The secondary level diagnosis least likely to have been identified at PHC level was bronchiolitis 3 (5.2%). The majority of bronchiolitis cases (n = 50; (86.2%) were classified as pneumonia at the PHC level facility. CONCLUSIONS: Implementing a sustainable and consistent ETAT approach with stabilisation and treatment capacity at PHC level reinforce staff capacity to diagnose and has the potential to reduce other health system costs through fewer, timely and appropriate referrals.

Experiences of caregivers of infants who have been on bubble continuous positive airway pressure at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital, Malawi: A descriptive qualitative study.

BACKGROUND: An innovative, low-cost bubble continuous positive airway pressure (bCPAP) device has recently been introduced in Malawi for the treatment of respiratory distress in infants. While this novel bCPAP system has been shown to be safe and effective in reducing infant mortality, caregivers' experiences have not been investigated. The purpose of this study was to explore experiences of parents and guardians of infants who had been on bCPAP at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital (QECH) in Blantyre, Malawi. METHODS: This was a descriptive phenomenological study that was carried out at the Chatinkha nursery unit and the paediatric nursery ward at QECH, from January to February 2015. Purposive sampling was used to select participants for in-depth interviews. Data saturation was reached with 12 caregivers. Data were analysed using Colaizzi's framework. RESULTS: Caregivers received inadequate, inconsistent, and sporadic information about bCPAP. Student nurses and doctors were best able to answer caregivers' questions and concerns. When their infants were on bCPAP, caregivers felt anxious and fearful. However, upon implementation of bCPAP treatment for their children, the caregivers were satisfied with it. The main sources of psychological stress were limited parent-child interaction and the constraints of prescribed visiting hours. Family, friends, and caregiver involvement in the care of infants provided some psychological comfort. CONCLUSIONS: The results show gaps in the information and psychological support that mothers of infants on bCPAP receive in hospital. We recommend that psychological support be given to the mothers of infants on bCPAP at QECH.