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FeedLooking Out for Kids
The goal for the newest member of the Emergency Nurses Association: better pediatric care.
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If there’s one thing Deena Brecher knows from her 12 years as a pediatric emergency room nurse, it’s that kids can’t be treated as little adults.
Indeed, getting better care for the tiniest patients is a goal Brecher intends to pursue when she joins the board of directors of the Emergency Nurses Association in January. “The vast majority of children are cared for in community hospital emergency departments,” says the 36-year-old Brecher, clinical nurse specialist in the emergency department at Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children in Rockland. “A lot of them don’t have the correct equipment or medications to take care of children.”
She’d also like to see nursing schools better train students in the interpersonal skills necessary to interact with children and their families. “Children have different needs than adults,” she says. “They come in with their families all the time. You can’t treat them in isolation.”
Brecher will also work to raise awareness about the growing problem of violence in the nation’s emergency departments—a goal she shares with the association. A recent ENA study finds that more than half of emergency room nurses report experiencing physical violence on the job. Brecher acknowledges she once had a knife pulled on her at a hospital in Connecticut. Yet hospital administrations and law enforcement often downplay the problem, blaming it on stress. “Even the nurses think it’s just part of the job,” she says. Brecher admits she was surprised when she arrived at A.I. five years ago and some parents actually said “thank you.”
As the only member of the panel with a pediatric specialty, Brecher feels she can provide a unique perspective during her three-year tenure. She is thrilled to have been elected and says that the staff at A.I. has been totally supportive. “They want me to succeed,” she says. “I’m going to learn a lot.” —Christine Facciolo
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