03/10/05       Patient satisfaction survey

As part of Nicola’s advanced vocational training, 50 patients will be asked to complete this survey. These patients will be selected at random at the clinic. They are asked a number of questions concerning their clinic visit. It is a good opportunity for patients to let Nicola know what they liked / or disliked. In the end that can only improve patient care.. A great thanks to Helen for helping us with these surveys.

03/10/05       PEDS score

PEDS survey. This survey is conducted by Vicky Howell, paediatric registrar. The PEDS (pediatric developmental screen) is a short developmental screen for children under 8 years of age. It contains 8 very basic questions about the development of a child (speech, motor system, behaviour etc..). It is said that this screen picks up 70 - 80% of developmental problems and is as good as far more complicated developmental screens. We will try to complete this for 50 children. We want to know if any children have developmental problems that otherwise would not have been picked up. We will also assess how easy the test is to administer.

07/07/05       More TV for children, less qualifications later

A study followed people born in Dunedin in 1972 and 1973. Those who watched the most television between the ages of 5 and 15 had earned fewer qualifications by the time they were 26. Earlier childhood TV watching had the greatest negative impact on getting a degree. Children watching less than 1 hour TV per day had the most qualifications later in life. This study was published in the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine. So, lots of TV viewing is going to make your children less successful. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends a maximum of 2 hours of  TV viewing per day. This New Zealand study shows that a maximum of 1 hour is even better.
Click here for an abstract of the article.

30/06/05       Meningococcal immunisation

We are administering MeNZB to:

• children aged 6 weeks to 5 years
   
• adolescents who have left school and are under the age of 20

 A number of our patients have completed the course of 3 injections. We have seen some side effects, mostly sore arms, vomiting or fever. No serious side effects were seen.

We respect the choice of persons who do not accept this immunisation. However, we are in favour of the MeNZB. Meningococcal disease is a very serious illness. In New Zealand it leads to a significant number of deaths and disabilities.
Click here for a comment on the recent debate about the lack of a phase 3 trial.
 

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