How Endorsing the GCS Can Help You Save a Patient's Life

Being in a country where there is a nurse-patient ratio of 1:15-26 per shift, it is not easy to be able to perform a thorough assessment to all of the patients. In most cases, especially in a government setting, some assessments are skipped and only a few things are endorsed. In my experience among some institutions, the Glasgow Coma Scale or GCS is often missed because the assessment takes a while to finish, and only a few have actually memorized this scale by heart--some nurses also tend to focus more on the vital signs.

I was on ambulance duty when we responded to an 18-year old girl who lost consciousness at home. We assessed her vitals signs and gathered her medical history along with a brief physical assessment. She was diagnosed with chickenpox and is currently on her third day from when the symptoms started to appear. Although her vital signs are stable and within the normal range, I still assessed her GCS and had a score of 5 (E-3, V-1, M-1). We loaded her into the ambulance and I reassessed her during transport. I got a GCS of 4 (E-2, V-1, M-1) by the time that we arrived at the Emergency Room.

Study Finds Pediatric Trauma Nurses Know About Trauma-Informed Care


A recent study from The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and Penn State Hershey Children's Hospital published in the Journal of Pediatric Nursing reveals pediatric trauma nurses are knowledgeable about practicing trauma-informed care, but points to the need for additional nurse training to help families cope after a child's injury. When an injury occurs, both the child and other family members may experience traumatic stress reactions interfering with a full recovery. Pediatric nurses play a key role in preventing injury-related post-traumatic stress by providing trauma-informed care, which includes recognizing pre-existing trauma, addressing acute traumatic stress reactions associated with the traumatic event, minimizing potentially traumatic aspects of treatment, and identifying children who need additional monitoring or referrals for more help.

A Twist for Canned Tuna: Baked in Eggs and Cheese

Baked Tuna in Eggs and Cream Cheese, Topped with Tomatoes, Parmesan Cheese, and Basil

Why Kids Should Be Protected from Toxic Stress

This is from one of my journals in my psychology class. If you have a child at home, I hope you would take some time to read this. This would be helpful especially for parents of infants. Part of our society’s norms is to allow the child to cry for a few minutes before attending to him because we tend to believe that this will make his lungs stronger when he grows up. Our society also believes that this will prevent the child to be “spoiled” as he grows older. This is a wrong notion and must be corrected.
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