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Article 1: Rennick, J. E., & Rashotte, J. (2009). Psychological outcomes in children following pediatric intensive care unit hospitalization: A systematic review of the research. Journal of Child Health Care, 13, 128–149. doi:10.1177/1367493509102472

Learning Objective: 16.3 Define the field of pediatric psychology and illustrate some of the major professional activities of pediatric psychologists. Show how pediatric psychologists help youths with chronic medical problems.

Summary: This article reviews 28 research studies examining children’s psychological outcomes after intensive care stays. Results indicate that some, but not all, children experience psychological distress after hospitalization. Further research is necessary to fully understand the risk factors so that these can be addressed.

Questions to Consider:

1. The authors categorize children’s responses in four ways. How did the children describe their experiences?
2. What types of negative effects do we see most commonly?
3. How might a trauma model help in understanding this experience for children? What further research is required?
    

Article 2: Girling, I., Colville, S., Borrelli, M., Bowman, N., Christie, D. (2016). From referral to discharge: Young people and parents’ experience of a systemic paediatric psychology service. Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 21, 297–307. doi:10.1177/1359104515589639

Learning Objective: 16.3 Define the field of pediatric psychology and illustrate some of the major professional activities of pediatric psychologists. Show how pediatric psychologists help youths with chronic medical problems.

Summary: Psychological interventions among pediatric patients help reduce future medical encounters and have been shown to increase treatment adherence. Thus, it is important to assure patient satisfaction to promote use of pediatric psychology services. The present study examined satisfaction in 44 families and found that the majority believed that the service had improved their situation.

Questions to Consider:

1. What benefits due to pediatric psychology interventions have been found in the past?
2. Describe the services that the participants in this study received. How satisfied were the patients? What positives and negatives did they note?
3. How might patient experience be improved in the future?
    

Article 3: Mruzek, D. W., McAleavey, S., Engel, S., & Smith, T. (2016). A novel enuresis alarm for toilet training students with intellectual disability. Journal of Special Education Technology, 31, 217–227. doi:10.1177/0162643416673915

Learning Objective: 16.1 Describe the key features of childhood elimination disorders, their causes, and their evidence-based treatment.

Summary: The use of alarms for nocturnal enuresis is well established. The present study extended this work to daytime enuresis in the treatment of three children with intellectual disability. The results generally supported the effectiveness of the intervention.

Questions to Consider:

1. Explain, using classical conditioning, how this alarm system works.
2. Is this technique an advance over prior systems? If so, in what way? How did the staff view this intervention?
3. How might you improve this study or the intervention itself?