[Carla25]

I just wanted to know how many of you know what Kawasaki Disease is. I never heard of it until my daughter was diagnosed with it in May 2006, right before entering my nursing program. I really don't think alot of people know what it is. I am going to suggest to my OB/PEDS teacher that me and my classmates do a community project to make people aware of this disease. Maybe like in a childrens clinic since it occurs mostly in children under 5 years old.

[sydie]

We studied it last semester, but I am pretty sure none of us knew what it was beforehand. How scary for you.

[EricJRN]

I think most of us cover it in our programs, but reminders and more in-depth explanations never hurt. Something directed toward the community could certainly be a good idea.

[Daytonite]

Here is some information on pediatric Kawasaki disease for you from e-medicine:

http://www.emedicine.com/ped/topic1236.htm

[RegisteredNurse06]

Originally Posted by Carla25

I just wanted to know how many of you know what Kawasaki Disease is. I never heard of it until my daughter was diagnosed with it in May 2006, right before entering my nursing program. I really don't think alot of people know what it is. I am going to suggest to my OB/PEDS teacher that me and my classmates do a community project to make people aware of this disease. Maybe like in a childrens clinic since it occurs mostly in children under 5 years old.

Oh wow.....ya know, my heart sinks every time I see those words. My son had Kawasaki Disease in Dec. 2001. He was 4 1/2 yrs old at the time. I'd never heard of Kawasaki Disease before that time. I did a lot of research and learned as much as I could about KD. I started my nursing program in the fall of 2004 so it was a few years after that I went back to school.

When I took my peds course in nursing school, I spent time putting materials together for my nursing instructor at school because I was asked to help with that. Still, she only gave a very small spill on KD and asked me to share my experience with my classmates, which I did. I ended up spending a lot of time out of class explaining KD to my classmates. I also did a teaching project in my last semester on KD. In fact, when our teaching project was first assigned to us, my instructor denied my request to do my project on KD. I was very angry with her about it but when i asked her why I couldn't do the project on KD her only response to me was "well, I think it would be better if you did your project on something that you can use in your career. Chances are, you will never see anyone with KD". I was furious. I didn't know what to say or what to do because I knew her response was one of ignorance. She wasn't trying to be mean or anything. She just didn't have a clue how much education and public awareness is needed in relation to KD. Ironically, I had another assignment in ANOTHER class that she taught that gave me an opportunity to express my feelings reguarding KD without being offensive to her. After I wrote my paper for the other class, she emailed me, apologizing to me and saying that she was convinced we needed more awareness and asked me to do my teaching project on KD, which I did.

Anyway.....this is one of those topics that I could go on and on about. Nobody knows what it's like to experience this unless they've been there themselves. And MOST people see KD as some rare disorder that is unlikely to be encountered in one's nursing career. The sad thing is, it is likely more common than people think and often goes undiagonosed or misdiagnosed. If only people knew.....with early treatment, most children with KD will respond well and can go on to live normal, happy lives. Without it, their chances of a happy healthy life are much less.

My recommendation to you is to do anything and everything you can to raise awareness. May God Bless you and your daughter!

[firstyearstudent]

I'd heard of it from an article in a New Yorker magazine a few years back, but they haven't covered it in nursing yet (I've got peds coming up this semester).

[BeccaznRN]

We covered this disease in our pediatric class....had a few exam questions on it as well.

[Lynn4875]

I did my Peds clinical rotation presentation on Kawasaki Disease. The only reason why my classmates were aware of the disease was because we had discussed it in Peds class the previous week. I'd never heard about it before then.

[4evrhisma]

They just showed an episode about it on a show called Mystery Diagnosis, on the Discovery Health Channel. I hadn't heard of it before then. You should defenetly suggest it! My son had Menkes disease, and nobody had ever heard of it before, except one resident at the second hospital we went to, who had read about it in med school, and recognized the symtoms, and because of that we able to get the ball rolling on a diagnosis, otherwise we may not have had one (he passed away at 14 mos). It's so important to get the word out, because all it takes is someone who has read about it, or seen a show about it, or heard about a family that has gone through the same thing, and a family may get answers they may not have otherwise gotten. A community project sounds like a great idea!

[JazzyRN]

well Im a peds/PICU RN so Ive seen the disease multiple times. i also recall learning about it in nursing school during our peds section. But sure awareness is always good. By the time our kawasaki's get admitted, theyve usually been to the ER and doctors office multiple times