When the pediatric nurse is attempting to establish a trusting relationship with a child what is the most important thing to do *?

Positive attention is the way you show delight in your child and warmth in your relationship through:

• smiling at your child
• making eye contact and using caring facial expressions
• showing physical affection – for example, hugging your child
• using words to celebrate and encourage your child
• showing interest in your child’s interests, activities and achievements.

Why positive attention is important

From birth, children need experiences and relationships that show them they’re valued, capable human beings who bring pleasure to others. Positive attention, reactions and responses from key grown-ups help children build a picture of how valued they are.

Your child’s self-image builds up over time with positive, loving messages from you and other important people in your child’s life. A healthy self-image is very important, not only for your child’s relationship with others, but also for your child’s confidence as they learn about the world.

Your child’s feelings of security and safety come from responsive interactions with you and other carers. If you smile at your child when they look towards you, or reassure your child when they’re frightened or uncertain, your child will feel safe and secure. This gives your child confidence as they explore their world.

All children do best in an environment where they’re supported, encouraged and enjoyed. In fact, warm and positive relationships are key to children’s development.

How to show positive attention: all ages

There are many ways to give your child positive attention. Daily activities like changing a nappy, supervising a bath or walking to school let you connect with your child in meaningful ways. For example, you can give positive attention by cuddling and tickling your toddler while you’re drying them after a bath. Or you can sit with your arm around your child while you watch television together.

No matter what your child’s age, there are simple things you can do every day to send the message that your child is special and important. For example:

• Look at your child and smile.
• Show interest in what your child is doing – ask your child to tell you about it if they can.
• Pay attention and listen closely when your child talks to you.
• Create some special family rituals you can share together.
• Make time to be with your child, doing things you enjoy together.
• Praise your child when they try out a new skill or make an effort with something – for example, ‘That’s a really beautiful drawing! Where did you learn to use shading like that?’

There are also ways you can show positive attention to children of different ages.

Newborns and babies: positive attention tips

Even before babies can understand and use words, they respond to your tone of voice, gestures, facial expressions and body language.

Here are ways to give your baby positive attention:

• Smile when your baby smiles at you.
• Comfort your baby when they cry.
• Respond to the sounds your baby makes by saying something in return.
• Chat about what’s going on around the two of you.
• Notice what your baby is interested in and encourage baby to explore – for example, show baby how to shake a colourful rattle that has caught their eye.

Toddlers: positive attention tips

As children get older, they understand more of what you say, as well as how you say it. Here are some tips for positive attention at this age:

• Get into the moment with your child. This could be as simple as crouching down to look at a caterpillar together.
• When you’re talking together, leave time after you talk so your child can reply.
• When you’re playing with your child, comment on what your child is doing, without correcting them or trying to get them to do something differently – for example, ‘Wow, that’s a very tall tower! I wonder how many more blocks before it falls down’.
• Tell your child exactly what you like about what they’re doing. For example, ‘I love it when you help to pick up the blocks’.

Preschoolers: positive attention tips

There are so many ways you can give your preschooler positive attention as they learn about the world. For example:

• Make time to do your child’s favourite activities together – for example, jigsaws, Lego, painting and so on.
• Remember to smile and make eye contact with your child when you greet them in the morning – perhaps even take a moment for a special cuddle.
• Show your child you’re happy to see them after child care or preschool. Tell your child that you missed them, or give hugs and high fives.

School-age children and pre-teens: positive attention tips

Children’s worlds expand when they go to school. But your warmth and positive attention are still the biggest influences on your child’s development.

Try these ideas:

• Stop what you’re doing and listen when your child wants to talk about school. This might not always be as soon as your child gets home – it might be when your child is in the bath or just before they go to sleep.
• Ask your child about one good thing that happened during the day.
• Ask follow-up questions when your child starts talking. This keeps the conversation going.
• Notice and guide your child’s positive interactions with others – for example, ‘I think Hunter really liked it when you asked her questions about her holiday. It gave her a chance to talk about something that was important to her’.
• If you need to provide constructive feedback, give some positive messages at the same time – for example, ‘Usually you’re such a good sharer. I can see it’s hard just now, but think about how your friends feel when you don’t let them have a turn.’

Before you correct your child, ask yourself: does it really matter, or could I just let it go? If you’re always correcting your child, this sends the message that your child isn’t capable or valued.

Positive attention: how it adds up over time

Over time, it’s important to give your child more positive attention than criticism or negative attention. If you can give your child positive attention most of the time, your child will have a strong sense of being secure and loved. This will also outweigh those occasional times when you feel frustrated or distracted, or you can’t give your child as much attention as you’d like.

If many of your daily interactions with your child are negative, or if it’s hard for you to feel or act positively with your child, it’s worth seeking professional help. Start by seeing your GP or a counsellor. These professionals can help you get your relationship with your child back on track – your relationship might even end up stronger.

Next to the bond between a parent and child, the bond between a teacher and child is one of the most important for a child’s development. Children with positive outlooks on life and learning are more likely to be successful. Here are four tips to help you actively work to build this bond in your classroom.

Be Considerate of the Child

One of the most important things a teacher can do is show a child that you care. This involves being genuine in interactions, actively listening, and responding to the needs of the child. If a child is upset or frustrated, it is your responsibility to help him or her determine what the cause is, and provide strategies, if needed, to work through the situation.

Listen, reflect on, and validate a child’s emotions to show him or her that their feelings are important to you and his or her well-being.

Provide Clear Expectations and Give Choices when Appropriate

Take time to let the children know what the expectations are in your classroom. Older children may be able to provide ideas for setting expectations. Clear expectations allow children to follow through on directions and make wise decisions.

When appropriate allow children to make choices, this provides them a sense of control over the situation and builds self-confidence by allowing them to feel that you trust their decisions.

Take Time to Connect with Each Child

Take time every day to connect with each child individually. Greeting a child warmly and talking in a pleasant, calm voice helps you develop a secure teacher, child relationships. It is also important to get to know each child and appreciate where he or she is at in their development, understanding, and interests. This will allow you to better tap into how to reach and motivate each individual child.

Speak to Each Child on His or Her Level

When speaking to a child, kneel or lean down to get on his or her level. Eye contact is also incredibly important. Whether you’re communicating directions or asking the child a question, this body language demonstrates that you are engaged and listening.

A positive teacher-child relationship has a tremendous impact on a young child’s ability to learn and grow. Take the time to foster trusting relationships, and you’ll find that it’s much easier to manage your classroom and create a positive learning environment.

Health practitioners promote service satisfaction and self-assurance by maintaining a familial bond during pediatric treatment with a value system called family centered care. Providers and organizations adopting this philosophy promote emotional, physical, and psychological health among children during treatment. Family centered care has evolved from literary works penned by practicing nurses over the last seven decades. Nurses practice the method as a means to build a rapport that facilitates fulfillment of the needs of all stakeholders.

This once prohibited practice now receives increased acceptance, bolstered by highly compelling empirical evidence. Using this approach, nursing professionals create an environment that recognizes parents as critical information sources and part of the caregiving team. While many pediatric practitioners have accepted family centered care as an effective value system, many more have yet to incorporate it into their repertoire.

Pediatric practitioners who adopt family centered care techniques recognize how important it is to include family members in the evaluation, delivery, and planning of treatment and incorporate that ideology into assessments, facility design, policies, programs, and routine interactions. [1]These care providers understand the important role that family members play in children’s wellness.

Pediatric care providers who follow family centered service principles treat each child as an individual and support family values and strengths to promote positive patient outcomes. These professionals also engage families in a way that supports emotional development and reassures family members that they are an important component in their child’s treatment.

The fact and views presented by the patient and their family members comprise important influences in clinical decision-making. Confident and informed family members reinforce children’s strength and courage. Bearing this in mind, the following five innovative practices can help pediatric care providers improve patient outcomes.

1. Open Communication with Family Members

Open communication in pediatric and neonatal wards lead to improved patient and familial satisfaction. These outcomes improve patient safety and stakeholder candidness. When clinical errors occur, a relationship built with open communication plays a critical role in how stakeholders perceive the event.

Family centered pediatric practitioners share information and encourage patient participation during treatment while maintaining privacy rights, especially among disabled children, and respect children’s ability to make appropriate decisions. When conducting research, family centered pediatricians defer to patient and family member views on project participation and information sharing. Communication also improves performance among medical personnel.

2. Recognizing Familial Importance

Patient and family centered care started to emerge in the 1950’s. The practice holds special relevance for families raising children with special needs, as well as low-income, minority, and uninsured families.

The doctrine reduces incurred costs and improves the experience realized by patients and family members. By keeping family members present during treatment, pediatricians decrease stakeholder apprehension and create a supportive setting for family members, while encouraging patient interaction and promoting a healing environment.

3. Family and Organizational Collaboration

At family centered practices, family members serve as the patient’s advisors, committee, and task force for promoting the best possible treatment outcome. [2] A supportive environment encourages family members to participate in value added groups, such as peer networks, quality improvement initiatives, and safety committees. Family centered value adoption starts at the executive level with appropriate guidance and resource allocation and then proliferates throughout the organization.

As it pertains to family centered care, collaboration encompasses complementary patient engagement, or if necessary, a guiding voice that encourages patient and family participation in the treatment process. New mothers commonly seek this kind of professional interaction.

Collaboration streamlines treatment and produces optimal health experiences. By combining their assets, beliefs, and capabilities, family members and care providers make enhanced decisions that best serve the needs of the patient.

4. Enabling Family Members to Support Treatment

Professional perceptions and attitudes can delineate the effectiveness of family centered care. To deploy the philosophy successfully, pediatric nurses must relinquish some, but not all, control to family members. To facilitate this, nurses must guide family members in caring, protecting, and making decisions for pediatric patients.

Most nurses are aware of the family centered practice concept. Entry-level nursing staff members may have difficulty relinquishing partial control to family members. However, experienced nurses typically feel more at ease with the idea, which empowers parents and guardians by enhancing their ability to play an active role in their child’s treatment.

5. Encouraging Cultural Literacy

The best methods to deliver care can change with cultural identity. Respect and honor for cultural differences represents a primary tenant in promoting family centered pediatric care. [6] Staff members who belong to various cultures can help their peers understand intercultural needs.

Each family unit also shares distinct cultural beliefs. Children learn their characteristics, heritage, and spirituality from their family members. Pediatric practitioners must identify and learn to relate to other cultures to understand the factors that contribute to patient health.

High-quality family centered care improves wellness among pediatric patients. When family members provide strong support during treatment, children feel calmer and more relaxed and require less medication to recover from painful injuries.

Family centered treatment promotes winning outcomes for patients, family members and care providers. For that reason, pediatricians should promote a family centered agenda in all aspects of their practices.

Learn More

Family nurse practitioners play a major role in today’s health care field. The responsibilities of FNPs have evolved alongside that of physicians, which means additional opportunities, autonomy, and authority. At Regis, our online Master of Science in Nursing FNP degree can help you develop the specialized skill set you need to practice at the advanced level.

Recommended Reading:

Pediatric NP Job Roles and Responsibilities
Career Outlook: Family Nurse Practitioner

Sources:

[1] American Academy of Pediatrics
[2] US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health – Family Centered Pediatric Nursing Care
[3] US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health