Family is the Basic Unit of Society
Each child within a family needs love and security to develop feelings of trust and self esteem. Each child is a unique individual who has needs based on the family background, level of growth and development, and degree of illness. The pediatric nurse seeks to promote, maintain and restore health in both children and their parents.
Each ill child should be under the accountable care of one professional nurse. The family and the child should be included in the health and nursing teams in planning for therapeutic and nursing interventions and for implementing and evaluating the plan of care.
Within a safe environment, the child who has an acute or chronic illness needs expert physical care, emotional support, and play therapy that allows for expression of feelings, aid school if the school-age child is well enough, to promote continued growth.
Parents who have a trusting relationship with nurse feel welcome whenever they visit and participate in the care of their ill child in the hospital. The family members and their child, who are under great stress when a child is terminally ill or dying, should be supported emotionally so that the child can die with dignity and with a feeling of being loved.