Paediatric Complex Home Care is person-centred specialist support for a child with a chronic or long-term health condition that requires extra assistance to manage their symptoms and daily activities to enable them and their families the highest quality of life available in their own home.
Complex care seeks to improve health and well-being for children with complex health needs by coordinating and reshaping care delivery at the individual, community, and system levels. It delivers person-centred care based on the family’s own goals and priorities.
Complex care needs can be cared for through a variety of services, such as
24-Hour Care which offers round-the-clock support in the family home, so they receive the care they need whenever it is needed.
Visiting care which is dedicated home care on an hourly basis that, allows the family to choose when and how they need support.
Nurses have an integral role in meeting the needs of a growing population of medically complex children.
Today with increased survival rates of infants born prematurely, those with various congenital anomalies or chronic conditions, and children who are more likely to survive cancer and other illnesses, paediatric complex care is becoming an essential service which allows these children to live at home and assists the family in having the best quality of life possible.
32 per 10,000 children in Ireland have ongoing complex care needs, with medical conditions like cerebral palsy, cystic fibrosis, congenital heart disease, or cancer resulting in frequent A&E visits and hospitalisations. These children usually have significant healthcare needs and functional limitations. They are not typically going to get better — sometimes, they get worse.
Paediatric Complex Home Care offers care for children with medical complexity that aims to reduce readmissions and healthcare costs by supporting families who care for these children at home.
Nurses’ Role With Medically Complex Children
Complex Homecare for children with complex needs came about because of the realisation that these children needed much more specialised attention after being discharged.
This often involves home visits by nurses and other providers and collaboration with community home health agencies, so nurses must have good communication and collaboration skills.
This model has many moving parts, and nurses are involved in nearly every aspect.
Nurses also support parents in receiving training in how to take care of medically complex children at home. Still, they also need a lot of reinforcement, re-education, and support to ensure they’re doing it correctly, which the nurse offers.
One positive to working within this type of care is that the work allows you to develop close relationships with your patient and their family.
The close, long-term, collaborative relationship with a child and their family is what many nurses see as the most rewarding part of the job.
Learn About Nearby Opportunities
Nurses who want to work with medically complex children can start by researching available job openings and their requirements at paediatriccommunitynursing.com/jobs
