The launch of the pain awareness campaign and the introduction of the intravenous (IV) therapy team have resulted in improved quality of life and more positive health outcomes for paediatric patients and their families, a senior Qatari nursing official from Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) has said.
Mariam al-Mutawa, assistant executive director of Corporate Nursing at HMC and former director of nursing for the five-year HMC SickKids Partnership Project, said  the pain awareness campaign has been among the most effective programmes at changing perceptions of healthcare staff and patients’ families, about recognising and managing pain in children.
“The ambition of our pain awareness campaign was to change attitudes toward dealing with pain in children, specifically in homes where the pain goes unrecognised because parents are dismissive of initial symptoms. Many medical conditions in children go undetected until they are discovered at a later stage because of a failure to understand children’s pain,” noted al-Mutawa.
According to al-Mutawa, the launch of the awareness campaign has stimulated a shift in staff and public attitudes. “This has been possible due to the ongoing training of our paediatric nursing staff and other multidisciplinary team members. They have become passionate advocates for children’s pain awareness and also the education of families to recognise pain-related symptoms and implement simple techniques to manage their child’s pain,” she said.
In addition to raising awareness within hospitals, al-Mutawa and her colleagues, collaboratively with Kulluna - a national, health and safety, public awareness campaign, founded by HMC’s Hamad International Training Centre (HITC) and Conoco Phillips Qatar - have also visited various malls in Qatar to provide education to a wider section of the public about children’s pain management.
Al-Mutawa said that the intravenous  therapy team, has been one of the most important additions to children’s healthcare services in recent years. HGH now has a dedicated team of highly-specialised nursing professionals who are available around-the-clock to provide this service. The team uses a number of techniques to make the procedure swift, including play therapy which helps in distracting children’s attention during the process of IV insertion.
“It is very difficult to have children undergo intravenous  insertion for different kinds of treatment,” she said, adding “our efforts are guided by a commitment to provide the safest, most effective and most compassionate care to each and every one of our patients.”
Part of HMC’s endeavours to enhance the quality of healthcare services offered to children has been the ongoing training and development of paediatric nursing staff.
Al-Mutawa, with the support of her colleagues, has taken the lead in organising annual paediatric nursing leadership symposiums in recent years. She also pointed out  that there are several opportunities for HMC nursing staff to hone their skills and drive improvements in nursing practices.