Scientific publications
Accompaniment of minors during health care procedures
Verjano Sánchez Felipe 1 , José Antonio Salinas Sanz 2 , Ester Barrios Miras 3 , Inés Del Río Pastoriza 4 , Iñigo Noriega Echevarría 5 , María Jesús Alijas Merillas 6 , Francisco Moreno Madrid 7 , María José Peláez Cantero 8 , Juan Pablo García Iñiguez 9 , Isolina Riaño Galán 10 ; Comité de Bioética de la Asociación Española de Pediatría
Abstract
In clinical practice, it is not rare to encounter situations in which parents and families are asked to leave the child alone with the health care team in rooms full of devices throughout the performance of procedures, which at times may give rise not only to conflicts but, more importantly, emotional sequelae in children or adolescents.
We conducted a narrative review of the literature by searching the digital library of the public health care system of Andalusia for articles concerning the experiences of health care professionals and families with the accompaniment of paediatric patients during health care procedures. We restricted the search to studies published in Spanish or English and conducted in humans.
The review evinced the need to humanise care in order to improve care quality. The need to accompany minors is supported by the evidence from works that have analysed the factors involved in the persistence of these behaviours and attitudes in both professionals and parents. We consider it necessary to develop institutional policies and appoint mediators to compile the statements of different national and international societies, taking into account legal aspects but, above all, the pertinent values from a health care ethics perspective, and in pursuit of the best interests of the child.
CITA DEL ARTÍCULO An Pediatr (Engl Ed). 2023 Nov;99(5):321-328. doi: 10.1016/j.anpede.2023.09.013. Epub 2023 Nov 17.
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