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Behavioral Coping Plans: One Inter-Professional Team's Approach to Patient-Centered Care
Katherine Wittling1, Jessica Palumbo Dufur1, Ashley McClain1
1Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, Atlanta, GA, USA.
Insights
A new coping plan helps healthcare providers offer individualized care for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), reducing anxiety for both patients and families during surgical encounters.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Surgery
- Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) Care
- Healthcare Behavioral Interventions
Background:
- Surgical settings present significant stress for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), their families, and healthcare staff.
- Parental insight is crucial for anticipating and meeting the unique needs of children with ASD.
- Developing targeted care plans is essential for effectively managing ASD patients in surgical services.
Purpose of the Study:
- To optimize best practices for perioperative staff caring for children with ASD.
- To implement a targeted, individualized plan of care for children with ASD and their families.
- To enhance the surgical experience for pediatric patients with ASD.
Main Methods:
- Utilized psychosocial and medical care strategies to develop a standardized coping plan.
- Incorporated tailored interventions based on individual child needs.
- Gathered information on healthcare experiences, sensory sensitivities, communication, stressors, and coping strategies.
Main Results:
- The coping plan facilitates individualized care, decreasing anxiety for parents and children.
- Standardized questions and tailored interventions help healthcare providers adapt to patient needs.
- Documented and updated plans in electronic medical records ensure continuity of care.
Conclusions:
- Reducing patient anxiety during healthcare encounters is critical for future positive experiences.
- The individualized coping plan empowers medical teams to make necessary adaptations.
- This approach fosters positive coping experiences for children with ASD in healthcare settings.
Background:
Surgical encounters for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are stressful to patients, families and health care providers. It is recognized that parents best anticipate needs of children with ASD. Including a family in the plan of care for the child is imperative. In response to the need for targeted, tailored care, an inter-professional surgical services team convened to determine best practices for addressing a behavioral and developmental plan for children with ASD in the surgical services arena.
Purpose:
This evidence based practice project was conducted to optimize best practices for perioperative staff in caring for children with ASD through a targeted, individualized plan of care for the autistic child and his or her family.
Methods:
Psychosocial and medical care strategies were utilized to create a coping plan with standardized questions. The coping plan allowed for tailored interventions specific to each child's needs.
Conclusion:
Actively reducing the anxiety a child experiences in a current encounter is paramount to the success of future visits. The coping plan is a formalized summary aimed at helping healthcare providers give individualized care, thereby decreasing the anxiety of both the parent and child. The individualized plan outlines the needs of the patient and allows for the medical team to make adaptations to lessen the stressors a health care visit can present. Plans are shared with the medical team, documented, and updated in the electronic medical record for future encounters. Information captured includes: previous healthcare experiences, sensory sensitivities, communication methods, stressors and coping suggestions. Utilizing best practice, patients are able to receive individualized care to foster positive coping experiences within healthcare.