paragraph 2 question for this week
Please write a Paragraph answering to this discussion below with your opinion. Please include citations and references in alphabetical order in case of another source.
In 2004, over one thousand school aged children in the United States died as a result of abuse or neglect. School aged children are most likely to encounter violence from caretakers at school, family friends, neighbors, but the highest risk is from their own family members and relatives.. The two most prevalent types of abuse is physical abuse, neglect, and sexual abuse. Physical and emotional abuse are experienced my many school aged children it is part of a nurse’s assessment to look for signs of abuse in these young children. Nurses should be on the look out for many signs that a child will display, most of the time the children will be too scared to report the abuse because of threats that have been made, they don’t want to betray their family members or they don’t understand what is going on is wrong. Physical symptoms to look for in a school aged child is burns, spiral fractures in extremities, x rays that show old healing fractures with no history of treatment, cigarette burns, injuries to face, scars, subdural hematomas. The nurse should always ask for explanations of the injuries to the child and parent separately. Sexual abuse assessments should include looking for signs of repeated UTI, STD’s etc. Assessment of emotional/neglect abuse in school aged children should include looking for signs of vacant affect, the child does not cry even if the situation warrants crying, craving too much physical attention, delated physically, emotionally, cognitively. A nurse should look for signs of poor hygiene in a child, poor school outcomes. ( Maurer and Smith, 2009)
Some cultures have a different way of raising their children, in a strict environment. It is up to the nurse to try and differentiate between normal child activity and abuse. It can be hard to determine the difference but as nurses we must advocate for the children we care for because they may not always know what to do or who to report to.
A nurse’s responsibility to take action against child abuse is to verbally report to child protection agency or local law enforcement agency. In California, reports should be sent to child protection agency within 48 hours of initial complaint and a couple to the state attorney’s office.
Maurer , F. , Smith, C. “ Community/Public Health Nursing Practice†2009. St Louis, MS.Elsevier.