Common Accidents in Paediatric Practice; Current Evidence for a 4-Pronged Strategic Framework for Prevention

Accidents are inadvertent untoward events that lead to injuries or diseases. In the healthcare setting, both patients and healthcare workers are at risk of being victims. By virtue of children’s evolving developmental maturity, caring for them puts all parties more at risk. Having a comprehensive framework to prevent accidents in paediatric practice is therefore crucial.

This paper aims to utilize the primordial, primary, secondary and tertiary levels of prevention to detail the strategies for preventing needle stick injury, exposure to blood-borne infections, post-injection traumatic neuropathy, post injection abscess, Nicolau syndrome, fluid overload, and drug overdose in paediatric healthcare settings.

Preventing the selected injuries and disorders involves a multidisciplinary team of paediatricians, paediatric surgeons, orthopaedic surgeons, burns and plastic surgeons, neurosurgeons, toxicologists, pharmacists, microbiologists, infectious disease physicians, anaesthetists, and public health physicians.