DFTB in EMA #2 – identifying the sick febrile child

The team at DFTB had our second article published in the series for Emergency Medicine Australasia Journal.

Healthcare professionals who do not meet sick children on a regular basis are often anxious about missing a serious bacterial infection in a child. Even for those of us working solely in paediatrics, there is still the same fear of sending home a pyrexial child without recognising how unwell they are. Each individual needs to have a system in place, and a process to work through, when assessing the child who is febrile with no focus of infection. A combination of history, physical assessment and physiological markers can be used for correct identification.

Click here to read the rest of the article – “Needle in a haystack: how to identify the sick febrile child”

Reference:

Davis T, Goldstein H, Lawton B. Tagg A.Needle in a haystack: how to identify the sick febrile child. Emerg Med Australas. 2015 Aug;27(4):284-6.