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Care Opinion

Hospital staff culturally sensitive training

Posted By golfqd85

"Hospital staff culturally sensitive training"

About: Perth Children's Hospital / Emergency Department

(as a parent/guardian),

I attended Perth Children's Hospital with my child recently. While they were indeed unwell and had been for a couple of days they weren't critical. The GP had recommended that I take my child to ED if they were still feeling unwell.

Things flowed reasonably but I was shocked to say the least when the triage nurse checked my child's capillary refill by pressing on the sternum. My child is dark skinned and as such one can't tell capillary refill from the skin on the sternum. If my child had indeed had a condition that impacted their circulation I feel things could have gone downhill.

As if that wasn't enough... I recall the nurse assisting the Dr who attended to my child stated "My veins are easily visible because my skin is light. We can't see your veins that's why the Dr is having trouble collecting blood"

I was shocked and disappointed that a nurse could seemingly be so insensitive. 

Please educate health care staff, we live in a rainbow nation and I feel should be able to be culturally sensitive at all times.

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Responses

Response from Child and Adolescent Health Service - WA 16 months ago
Child and Adolescent Health Service - WA

Submitted on 5/01/2023 at 7:49 PM
Published on Care Opinion on 6/01/2023 at 9:51 AM

Dear golfqd85

Thank you for taking the time to share your child’s health care experience at Perth Children’s Hospital (PCH). I understand that your concerns relate to the way in which your child’s circulation was assessed by the triage nurse and the insensitive comments made by a nurse during the attempt to collect your child’s blood.

I acknowledge your concern about the testing of your child’s capillary return. Please be assured that performing central capillary refills on all patients is standard practice for all triage nurses, regardless of skin pigmentation/colour, and is recommended by the APLS (Advanced Paediatric Life Support). Central capillary refill provides just one part of a multifaceted clinical picture and is useful when assessing patients for dehydration or gastroenteritis as well as circulation. Nursing staff are trained to monitor for signs of clinical deterioration and if capillary refill is difficult to assess centrally, they are encouraged to perform this test peripherally and ensure it is clearly documented.

I can understand your disappointment in relation to the insensitive comments that were made during the attempt to collect your child’s blood and I sincerely apologise for your experience. Please be assured that your feedback has been shared with the Clinical Nurse Manager and Head of the Emergency Department. We are continually working with families to ensure that all feel welcome and improve the way in which we communicate and deliver our services. As part of this, we have introduced new training packages in creating a service-based culture and mandatory cultural awareness training for all CAHS staff.

I really appreciate you taking the time to provide your feedback. We aim to provide accessible, safe and high-quality care for all families and children and your feedback enables us to review practice, the way in which we communicate with families and improve the care and services we provide.

Yours sincerely

A/Nurse Co-Director, Medicine Division
Perth Children’s Hospital

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