Re: Family Ride alongs

["Andrew Berry" <Aberry@nets.org.au>]

Our policy is to accommodate a family member (invariably mother or father) whenever possible. This is for the 'social' reason of avoiding parent/child separation but more importantly, to reduce illness severity in childnren whose disease process is exacerbated by 'parentectomy'. Conditions like asthma and croup are examples of anxiety levels being a key factor in whether a child can be safely transported. I can report cases where the effect of parentectomy was managed by sedation of the child and the child deteriorated as a result.
>From a pragmatic point of view, we have the capacity (BK117 and Dauphin N2) to accommodate 2 - 4 adults in addition to the patient. Our helicopter policy treats parents as passengers. They are given a safety briefing and records kept of that for 12 months.
Survey any parent group and you will find that one of the most stressful parts of having their child so sick was separation. Our philosphy is that this is as important a factor in having a 'client focus' as letting parents visit in the pICU.

Dr Andrew Berry ABerry@nets.org.au
State Director
NSW Emergency Transport Service 
www.nets.org.au

Hotline    1300 36 2500   +615 0055 NETS
Office      05 005 24453   +615 005 CHILD
Facsimile 05 008 24453   +615 008 CHILD
Direct      05 005 23779   +615 005 BERRY


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