adult patients at Chidren's

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I have heard that it is not uncommon for adult patients to be admitted to children's if they have a pediatric or congenital diagnosis. As a pediatric nurse I understand not wanting to kick patients out the door simply because they age out, but how do you feel about taking care of adult patients? If they have other medical problems other than what they were admitted for, is the nursing and/or medical staff prepared? Do the nurses enjoy the variety or do they wish they did not have to take care of adults? Do adults sometimes have to have kids for roomates? Do they have adult friendly environment along with a kid friendly environment?

Every time we get even an 20 year old on our unit, most the nurses complain.

What are your experiences?

Susan

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Specializes in pediatric.

as a CA at Childrens, having adult patients isnt uncommon. From my observation, the nurses that take care of adult patients dont complain, and dont even really think about it much, they just take care of them to the best of their abilities while providing age appropriate interventions of course. I am pretty sure that adult patients get single rooms because rooming with a child might be a bit uncomfortable for them. And yes, there definately is an adult friendly environment for them! We dont discriminate at Childrens!:)

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My friend recently had surgery on her hip, labrum and psoas and her doctor was at Childrens. She actually found the whole experience really great, but also kind of hilarious in that the nurses had a very different demeanor than she's seen before (she's a type 1 diabetic, and an Ironman triathlete, and also has celiac, so she's at the Joslin a lot).

She was really surprised and had to laugh whenever anyone needed to take her blood or run a test, because they were just SO nice and SO gentle (from dealing with kids, obviously). As a type 1 diabetic, she chuckled when one of the nurses said, "okay now. We're just going to take some blood. It won't hurt and you can look away, and it'll be over before you know it." :)

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My son is 18 and is facing one more surgery related to cleft-lip/palate at Children's. He looks like a man, actually has a nice full BEARD, but his surgery is on a continuum, lip, hard palate, soft palate, dental work, nose job (his term), final surgery. His first surgery was at 16 months old.

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Specializes in Geriatrics, Transplant, Education.

My brother is 21 but has a pediatric diagnosis of pilocytic astrocytoma & he still visits his neurosurgeon who is at Children's. His last most recent surgery was at age 17, and he gets yearly MRIs and visits to the Jimmy Fund Brain Tumor clinic. Far as I can understand he'll continue to see this neurosurgeon until he retires (which'll probably be in the next several years) and then will likely be referred to an adult neurosurgeon for continued follow up. So I guess he's considered an adult Children's patient!

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