Experience of the school-aged child with tracheostomy

A Multidisciplinary Children’s Airway Center: Impact on the Care of Patients With Tracheostomy

“…From a research perspective, airway center team members have collaborated with researchers on a project to develop predictive models for treatment of upper airway obstruction. [36][37][38][39] Studies focusing on inhalation injury in pediatric burn patients, 40 airway management of complex patients, 41,42 and the experience of the school-aged child with a tracheostomy 43 were also supported by airway center data and resources. Multidisciplinary children's airway centers address the needs of a complex patient population and comprise unique patients relying on multiple providers and extensive resources.…”

Influences on Decision Making Identified by Parents of Children Receiving Pediatric Palliative Care

“…The decisions that parents confront are diverse, ranging from deciding whether to issue a do-not-resuscitate or do-not-intubate order, cease some form of technologically sophisticated life-supporting care, limit artificially routed nutrition and hydration (Grubb 1995), or have a child receive a tracheostomy or additional surgery (Montagnino and Mauricio 2004; Patel, Zdanski et al 2009), to deciding whether to take the child home with hospice (Dominica 1987; Whittle and Cutts 2002; Surkan, Dickman et al 2006). How this decision-making process operates, though, is not well characterized.…”

Improving access to school based education for South African children in rural areas who have a tracheostomy: A case series and recommendations

“…Another shortcoming of this study is that the recommendations that we suggest have not been validated but many of the recommendations are low budget common sense solutions that have been proposed by the teachers and families with firsthand experience in this area, for example, having children with limited vocalization accompanied to the pit latrines that are at a distance from the classrooms. Furthermore, similar recommendations, for example, preferential seating, were made in the studies conducted in United Kingdom [1] and United States of America [2] and future studies can evaluate the efficacy of such recommendations. Now that this study has identified areas of strength and opportunities for improvement, a more robust and formalized teacher training program can be created.…”

“…Studies of a similar nature have been conducted for children with tracheostomies who attend school in the United Kingdom [1] and United States of America [2]. Both of these studies demonstrated that in settings were special needs classrooms, school nurses, teacher's aids and/or individualized learning plans are readily available children with tracheostomies can be integrated into the mainstream schools.…”

“…It is well established that children with tracheostomies are able to attend school in well-resourced countries where dedicated special-needs classrooms, school nurses, teacher's aids and individualized learning plans are readily accessible [1,2]. While affluent and/or special needs schools in South Africa might be able to provide comparable resources, a vast majority of the population cannot afford to attend these schools and/or live in areas where no special needs-schools are available.…”