WONG, Lecery Sophia C.

Pediatric Ward

BSN 2-I1

Reflection Paper

Pediatric Community-Acquired Pneumonia in the United States

The research article that I’ve read in lined to this illness is about the “Pediatric Community-
Acquired Pneumonia in the United States” which focuses on the changing epidemiology of CAP,
diagnostic and therapeutic challenges, and areas for further research. The aim of the study is to identify
specific concerns both on diagnostic and therapeutic interventions to further address the risks/problems
brought by this disease.

Chest radiographs and chest ultrasound are two diagnostics that were mentioned in the study to
confirm the diagnosis. Chest radiographs are used in which the examiner looks for white spots in the
lungs (called infiltrates) that identify an infection, but even this test reveals an infiltrate, it was found to
be difficult to differentiate the consolidation representing pneumonia and atelectasis commonly seen in
children with asthma or bronchiolitis and as a result, variation in chest radiograph interpretation may
contribute to antibiotic overuse. On the other hand, chest ultrasound is most often used for evaluating
local complications, such as parapneumonic effusion and empyema. It was found put by several studies
that this test demonstrates high sensitivity and specificity for detecting lung damage consolidation
compared with chest radiography. This also include a lack of ionizing radiation and availability in most
emergency department settings, but evaluation and interpretation are highly operator dependent. Thus,
additional studies are needed to better evaluate the effectiveness of this imaging technique.

For the therapeutic interventions of CAP, routine childhood vaccinations were mentioned in the
article to fight both Streptococcus pneumoniae and H influenzae, and it was found out that it has
dramatically reduced disease caused by the pathogens. PCV7 and PCV13 are both conjugate vaccines that
were emphasized which decrease the hospitalization rates for CAP and pneumonia-associated
complications among young children.

Importance to Nursing Research: I think further studies and researches should be comprehensively
done to better understand the etiology of the disease to help guide vaccine targets and antimicrobial
therapy and also to improve the prevention of CAP. Governments and health care teams all around the
world, may it be from the developed or undeveloped countries should unite in providing health education
to the people to address this kind of problem. Because this is a serious disease in children and it has been
the cause of mortality, I think further research is needed to properly address this disease and to help the
health care workers and ease there workload. Although the rate of mortality due to CAP is much lower in
the developed world compared with the developing world, CAP continues to account for a significant
proportion of health care visits and hospitalizations in high-income countries. /////

Importance to Nursing Practice: This journal touched some points regarding the etiology, Diagnosis
and impact of vaccines for PCAP-C in United States this kind of research is Important when it comes to
nursing Practice because we can immediately provide intervention that is appropriate to the said
symptoms. We can also task ourselves to address this before it gets worse. Another importance is that this
research will help other future nurses to become aware of this disease and know the tests to be done. .This
updated understanding brings into question whether all children with CAP would benefit from antibiotic
therapy, and if so, which therapies might be most effective. Nurses have to be more knowleagable in this
disease and it’s constantly changing epidemiology. Because we do not know when will it change and it is
really helpful if we are ready. ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Importance to Nursing Education: The importance of this journal to nursing education is we will have
a future scope of knowledge as to what will be done to patient who has PCAP-C since our tasks as nurses’
includes health teaching it is important for us to have a broad knowledge so we would be able know how
to educate future patients and to do the proper preventive measures so it will prevent recurrence of the
disease. Also. There are different test that is used to determine if a child has PCAP-C it is important that
we know what we will use. There are new advances in treating PCAP-C and this research helps us to
study what medication and therapies is effective because it change from time to time and it will be
challenge to study the constant changging epidemiology of CAP. we have to study to save more lives.
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Importance to Patients in the Area of Assignment: Knowing the patient is an essential element to the
practice of nursing. Nurses have to know what is the updated medication, treatment, and therapies that is
applicable in the current situation to prevent further complication to the patient. Every nurse should have
the ability to obtain the clinical and personal information needed to know the patient. Additionally, the
information should be consistent across all nurses and only vary based on the individual patient's care
needs.

REFERENCE:

Sophie E., Katz,and Derek J. Williams (2018) Pediatric Community-Acquired Pneumonia in the
United States. Retrieved From,
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5801082/