National Diabetes Transition Audit Report

The National Diabetes Transition Audit (NDTA) is a joint enterprise between the National Diabetes Audit (NDA) and the National Paediatric Diabetes Audit (NPDA) measuring the care of young people with diabetes during the transition from paediatric diabetes services to adult diabetes services.

This is the first published report for the NDTA and contains linked data from the NPDA and NDA for the audit period 2003-04 to 2013-14. The report covers young people with Type 1 diabetes.

Link to report download here

Principles of Consent – Guidance for nursing staff

This Royal College of Nursing document aims to provide information to registered nurses and other nursing staff to guide their practice around consent. It includes who can provide consent; what to do if the person does not consent; advance decisions; children and young people; professional accountability; who should seek consent and when; Form of consent; duration of consent; and consent for sharing information.

Link to guidance here

A healthy State of mind – Improving young people’s mental fitness

The current mental health system is failing children and young people. Whilst in almost all areas of health and care reform the dominant trend is to encourage people to be more independent and resilient, in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), something has gone badly wrong. This report argues for reform of the mental health system to provide greater support for the majority of young people who will not receive treatment from specialist CAMHS whilst ensuring that those in desperate need of clinical intervention receive immediate help.

Link to report here

Health behaviour in school age children: data analysis – 3 reports from PHE

The series of 3 reports from Public Health England focus on:

• self-harm
• cyberbullying
• emotional wellbeing of adolescent girls

These reports examine the data and explore what protective factors may exist in a young person’s life which may be linked to their mental health outcomes, ranging from personal attributes, family, school, peer and wider community context.

Public Health England has also produced a summary of data from the most recent HBSC survey.

Time to Appendectomy and Risk of Complicated Appendicitis and Adverse Outcomes in Children

JAMA Pediatrics, June 19th:

Question  In children diagnosed with appendicitis, does delay in appendectomy within 24 hours of hospital presentation increase the risk of complicated appendicitis or adverse events?

Findings  In this retrospective cohort study of 2429 patients from 23 children’s hospitals, delay of appendectomy within 24 hours of presentation was not associated with increased risk of complicated disease or postoperative complications.

Meaning  These results support the premise that appendectomy can be performed as an urgent rather than emergency procedure.

Link to full article here

Cochrane review: Management for intussusception in children

Intussusception is a common abdominal emergency in children with significant morbidity. Prompt diagnosis and management reduces associated risks and the need for surgical intervention. Despite widespread agreement on the use of contrast enema as opposed to surgery for initial management in most cases, debate persists on the appropriate contrast medium, imaging modality, pharmacological adjuvant, and protocol for delayed repeat enema, and on the best approach for surgical management for intussusception in children.

Link to full review here