Major trauma remains a significant cause of mortality and morbidity in young people and adolescents throughout\nthe western world. Both the physical and psychological consequences of trauma are well documented and it is\nshown that peri-traumatic factors play a large part in the emotional recovery of children involved in trauma. Indeed,\nparental anxiety levels may play one of the biggest roles. There are no publically available guidelines on pre-hospital\naccompaniment, and where research has been done on parental presence it often focuses primarily on the parents or\nstaff, rather than the child themselves. Whilst acknowledging the impact on parents and staff, the importance of the\nemotional wellbeing of the child should be reinforced, to reduce the likelihood of developing symptoms in keeping\nwith post-traumatic stress disorder. This non-systematic literature review, aims to examine the impact of parental\naccompaniment to hospital, following paediatric trauma, and to help pre-hospital clinicians decide whether\naccompaniment would be of benefit to their patient population. The lack of published data does not enable a\nformal recommendation of parental accompaniment in the helicopter to be mandated, though it should be the\npreference in land based conveyance. Future research is needed into the emotional recovery of children after\ntrauma, as well as the experiences of patient, parent and staff during conveyance.
Loading....