BEING ABLE TO PROVIDE CRITICAL FIRST AID TO A CHILD COULD BE THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LIFE AND DEATH. TWO PAEDIATRIC CRITICAL CARE NURSES ARE TEACHING PARENTS WHAT TO DO IN CASE OF A MEDICAL EMERGENCY.
PEADS is an education initiative by paediatric critical care nurses Grace Larson and Sarah Duncanson, providing infant and child first aid courses and information to parents.
“We are paediatric nurses and mothers who both grew up in rural Victorian towns and are now raising our own children on farms in rural Victoria,” Grace said.
“We are in the trenches with parents dealing with our kids’ chronic illnesses, injuries, childhood illnesses ... trying to make an impact on the health outcomes for children in the community.
“When I talk about outcomes, I'm talking about not just discharging someone from a hospital to home, but them having good outcomes.
“It's not just about survival. We want them to go on and live happy and healthy lives.”
Grace had to respond to her own medical emergency when her youngest child, who was born at the beginning of 2020, developed a life-threatening heart condition.
“Which is when no-one was seeing maternal child health nurses, you couldn't even get into the GP, it was really, really hard. Everything was telehealth,” she said.
“It really highlighted to me that not everybody had that ability isolated in their own home to know what signs to look for and when to get help.”
Because of the lack of access to health services in regional and rural areas, PEADS is working with parents to give them the knowledge, ability and confidence to respond to health emergencies that may threaten their children.
“The reality is that children under the age of four are at the highest risk of injury or death and mortality is higher in rural areas compared to metropolitan (according to the ABS),” Grace said.
“Nobody expects any of these things to happen. So when it happens, it’s a shock.
“First aid training and knowing CPR has a proven better outcome for both children and adults.”
For more information about PEADS, email: contact@paeds.education