WHAT I SAW
THROUGH THE CRACKS
BOSS, T.
Clinical Nurse Consultant, Paediatric
Outreach Service
Fairfield, Sydney, Australia.
“In Paediatric
Outreach
We are part of a
bigger team
Where
our Hospital and Community
Work to blend and
hide the seams”
The
Paediatric Outreach Service (POS) provides an integral link between health
services and families of children within the defined geographical
boundaries of the Fairfield Local Government Area in South Western Sydney.
This service provides a unique opportunity to enhance the paediatric
services offered to families when their child is sick. It provides care for
the child, in partnership with
parents, in the family home.
Providing
care for children in their own home shifts the balance of power between
families and health care professionals. As nurses, we are guests in their
home and as such, must be welcomed into that home and invited back. If we
are invited back, or recontacted for advice or support, then we have
successfully initiated a therapeutic relationship with the family. Once
established, this therapeutic relationship offers families the opportunity
to seek out and investigate other networks and services. The POS nurses
often act as guides in this process assisting families through the health
care maze to receive the services that best meet their needs.
This
paper will describe the Paediatric Outreach Service, how it works to
provide enhancements to established paediatric services and how it has
helped to change the face of health-care for many families in our local
community.