Smacc

Ffion Davies gives her take on how to spot the sick child in the Emergency Department. Paediatric medicine is no doubt hard and can at times be scary. There is nothing worse, in Ffion’s opinion, than sending a child home who later represents to the hospital in a worse condition, or even worse, later dies. So, how does one spot the sick child amongst the droves of children who will present with fever and vomiting. In this talk, Ffion gives a lesson on how to spot the sick children in the ‘grey’ zone – those that are not clearly sick and not clearly well. Ffion breaks her thinking into two main areas: physiology and psychology. Physiology matters. Scrutinising a full set of observations/vitals (in the context of the child’s age) will help avoid the feared crime of discharging a sick child. Ffion discusses tachypnoea as a prime example of a simple physiological compensation to raise one’s suspicion of serious disease. Similarly, psychology matters. Ffion talks in depth as to why she considers this to be true. Ta