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. ///////
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..////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

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.///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Importance to Patients in the Area of Assignment: Knowing the patient is an essential element to the
practice of nursing. 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/