Master of Science

thesisThe goal of the study is to understand the relationship between the impact of illness on the family, sibling functioning, and Child Life Services when a child in the family had received a heart, kidney, or liver transplant at Primary Children's Hospital. Twenty-eight families participated. Parents completed the Impact on Family Scale and Brief Problem Monitor-Parent Form and siblings of transplant recipients completed the Sibling Perception Questionnaire. The surveys were utilized to assess the impact of illness on the family, sibling behavior problems, and siblings' perceptions of how the illness affected family life. A Child Life Services Survey was created for the purposes of this study to assess frequency, satisfaction, and availability of Child Life Services, as well as parents' perceptions of the effectiveness and quality of Child Life Services. Analyses of the quantitative data revealed that families who were more affected by the illness also received more Child Life Services as reported by the mother. The data also revealed that siblings had more attention problems when the transplanted child required more time to manage his or her health care needs. Analyses of the qualitative data indicate that Child Life Services were valued by and meaningful for patients and families; however, the quality of services received appeared to be limited by an insufficient number of Child Life Specialists available to the patients and families. Implications include a need for more Child Life staff, improved sibling services, a need to empower parents, and increased communication regarding the role of Child Life to better meet the needs of patients and families

Chittenden County Child Care Providers & Conflict Implementing Sick Child Guidelines

Introduction: Nationwide, 61% of children under age five are enrolled in a form of non-parental care. Problems arise when a child becomes sick and is not able toattend daycare or has to be sent home. Parents must either miss work to care for their child or find someone else to care for them. Since there is stress surrounding taking time off, and because the criteria used to exclude children from child care can be ambiguous, parents may feel that their child doesn’t need to be sent home. Each child care provider has to set up exclusion criteria that meet state licensing requirements. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) developed exclusion guidelines specifically for childcare settings in 2006, but most daycare providers and pediatricians are unaware of its existence. Conflicts occur when there are differences in opinion on the child’s health status between the child care provider and the parents or the child’s pediatrician.https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/comphp_gallery/1023/thumbnail.jp