Paediatrics
include children from birth through puberty, until about 15 years of age. The
speciality is thus defined on the basis of age and not on the basis of treatment
of certain organs or diseases. The development is generally moving towards
involving the period of youth until age 20 years, which has already been the
case within several specialist areas. The paediatric departments treat children
within virtually all highly specialised specialist areas. The department
receives patients from all of Denmark, but mainly from the Capital Region of
Denmark and the Region of Zealand.
Children constantly grow and develop
and therefore they need to know about the varying opportunities for empathy and
understanding of their diseases and treatment and the significance of these
aspects depending on their age and stage of development.
This means that
the department must have specially trained staff at all levels for treatment and
care of children. This is the case for very complex patient courses that pose
great demands on all employees. The starting point is the family centre’s
treatment and care in that parents are significantly involved in the decisions
about the treatment of their children.
Because of the complexity of the
treatments, patient safety work in the paediatric departments is given high
priority. Currently, work is done with health professional contact persons,
communication in the clinical work and patient identification in connection with
medicine administration.