Streamlining Care for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Background: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a chronic and developmental disorder that affects about one out of every 65 children in California, and one in 59 children in the United States. Children with ASD have difficulty communicating and interacting with others, and experience oversensitivity to new stimuli and environments. Problem: In healthcare settings, children with ASD experience numerous challenges related to lack of adequate knowledge and education of staff regarding ASD, and lack of appropriate environmental and sensory resources which reduce quality of care provided to this population. Methods: The project took place in a Psychiatric Emergency Services (PES) Unit of a Hospital in Northern California that provides psychiatric and mental health services to approximately 15 children with ASD. This setting had no toolkit and/or sensory room to help staff better care for these children. Interventions: An educational toolkit to educate and guide staff, and a sensory room available for staff to offer children with ASD to reduce stimuli were implemented within PES. Results: 21 staff completed pre- and post- Likert-scale surveys, with 100% of the staff stated utilization of the interventions and agreeing with their effectiveness. Moreover, “Sensory Room Log” was used to evaluate the utility of the sensory room, with 100% of the staff using the sensory room for all 15 children with ASD that presented to PES (100% of children with ASD were offered and used the sensory room to decrease stimulation and promote relaxation). Conclusions: All participating staff believed the educational toolkit and the sensory room were effective interventions to help streamline and improve the quality of care provided to children with ASD in PES and recommended them to be utilized within other healthcare settings

Streamlining Care for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Background: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a chronic and developmental disorder that affects about one out of every 65 children in California, and one in 59 children in the United States. Children with ASD have difficulty communicating and interacting with others, and experience oversensitivity to new stimuli and environments. Problem: In healthcare settings, children with ASD experience numerous challenges related to lack of adequate knowledge and education of staff regarding ASD, and lack of appropriate environmental and sensory resources which reduce quality of care provided to this population. Objective: To analyze and evaluate the evidence regarding effective staff education and toolkit implementation, along with sensory room and items, and the potential impacts that these interventions can create to help mitigate this issue. Methods: To help guide the project and literature search, a PICOT question was designed and used to search across relevant databases and journals using applicable key terms to identify studies from 2012 to 2020. Selected studies were analyzed using John Hopkins Nursing Evidence-Based Practice Tools by Dang & Dearholt (2017). Results: Initial search resulted in 4157 studies across the databases and 2097 results across the journals. After applying further criteria and removing duplicates, final yield was five articles. Analysis of the five studies identified guidelines/interventions addressing behavioral and social concerns, healthcare staff knowledge and education, and sensory and environment. Conclusions: All five selected studies highlight the need and importance of implementing an educational toolkit for staff, and sensory room for children with ASD to streamline their care within healthcare settings