Effective pain management has beneficial effects on young patients. Sometimes parents are concerned that pain medication might lead to an addiction, but this fear is unfounded. Insufficient pain medication could lead to problems.
We encourage you to discuss pain management with the physicians who are caring for your child. Educate your child about what will happen before surgery or other treatments to reduce anxiety and promote cooperation. Your presence in the room during a procedure may be comforting to your child. When present, stay in physical contact with your child and distract him or her with conversation.
Sedative medications may be needed in some cases and should be administered. If sedation is used, make sure your child does not have milk or food for the recommended time period. This will make sedation safer for your child.
Procedures are generally performed in a procedure room instead of your child's hospital room, which should remain a safe haven.
There may come a time when you or a member of your family need assistance making difficult healthcare decisions for yourself or a loved one. Often there is no clear right or wrong answer, which can create dilemmas for the patient, family, physicians and the entire healthcare team. The Ethics Committee at Yale New Haven Children's Hospital has experienced consultants available to help with unresolved ethical concerns.
Learn more about the Ethics Committee at Yale New Haven Children's Hospital.
YNHH works hard to ensure the privacy of all patients and the confidentiality of all patient information. YNHH and all hospitals follow a federal law called the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which was designed to protect patient privacy and confidentiality and the security of patient information. Please let your healthcare team know if there is anyone with whom you wish your child's confidential health information shared. If you have any concerns regarding privacy and confidentiality, please contact the HIPAA privacy office at 203-688-8416.
YNHH is working to make the hospital a quieter place so that patients can experience a more peaceful, comforting, healing environment. If staff members, visitors or other patients are being too noisy, please ask a member of your patient care team to speak to them. We encourage staff members, patients and visitors to be aware of the noise level at the hospital, to speak in low conversational levels, set beepers and cell phones on vibrate mode and refrain from loud cell phone conversations. We recommend low television volume, encourage use of earphones and we are working to improve the noise levels of our utility carts.
We also have eye coverings, ear plugs and headphones for patients. In addition, there is a "Quiet Corner" in the Atrium Gift Shop, featuring relaxation therapy and healing arts items.
