Assignment: Health Problems In Childhood

Assignment: Health Problems In Childhood

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Assignment: Potential Health Problems In The Childhood

In this assignment, you will be exploring actual and potential health problems in the childhood years using a functional health assessment and Erickson’s Stages of Child Development. To complete this assignment, do the following:

• Using the textbook, complete the “Children’s Functional Health Pattern Assessment.” Follow the instructions in the resource for completing the assignment.
• Cite and reference any outside sources used in your answers. Include in your assessment a thorough discussion of Erickson’s Stages of Child Development as it pertains to the development age of the child.

While APA format is not required for the body of this assignment, solid academic writing is expected and in-text citations and references should be presented using APA documentation guidelines, which can be found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center.

This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.

Assignment: Potential Health Problems In The Childhood RUBRIC

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1-Two assessment findings characteristic of each age group and description of two potential problems that a nurse may discover in an assessment of each age group are given in detail and demonstrate thoughtful reflection.

2-Compare and contrast viewpoints of identified similarities or differences in expected assessment across the childhood age groups are offered in detail and demonstrate thoughtful reflection.

3-Summary of how a nurse would handle physical assessments, examinations, education, and communication differently with children versus adults is given. Spirituality and cultural differences are addressed. Summary is detailed and demonstrates thoughtful reflection.

4-Writer is clearly in command of standard, written, academic English.

5-In-text citations and a reference page are complete. The documentation of cited sources is free of error. Assignment: Potential Health Problems In The Childhood

Early Childhood: The Scale of the Problem

More than 200 million children under the age of five in the developing world are at risk of not reaching their full development potential because they suffer from the negative consequences of poverty, nutritional deficiencies and inadequate learning opportunities (Lancet 2007). In addition, 165 million children (one in four) are stunted, with 90 percent of those children living in Africa and Asia (UNICEF et al, 2012). And while some progress has been made globally, child malnutrition remains a serious public health problem with enormous human and economic costs. Child death is a tragedy. At 6 million deaths a year, far too many children perish before reaching the age of five, but the near certainty that 200 million children today will fall far below their development potential is no less a tragedy.

There is now an expanding body of literature on the determining influence of early development on the chances of success later in life.  The first 1,000 days from conception to age two are increasingly being recognized as critical to the development of neural pathways that lead to linguistic, cognitive and socio-emotional capacities that are also predictors of labor market outcomes later in life. Poverty, malnutrition, and lack of proper interaction in early childhood can exact large costs on individuals, their communities and society more generally.  The effects are cumulative and the absence of appropriate childcare and education in the three to five age range can exacerbate further the poor outcomes expected for children who suffer from inadequate nurturing during the critical first 1,000 days.

The Good News: ECD Interventions Are Effective

Research shows that there are large gains to be had from investing in early childhood development.  For example, estimates place the gains from the elimination of malnutrition at 1 to 2 percentage points of gross domestic product (GDP) annually (World Bank, 2006).  Analysis of results from OECD’s 2009 Program of International Student Assessment (PISA) reveals that school systems that have a 10 percentage-point advantage in the proportion of students who have attended preprimary school score an average of 12 points higher in the PISA reading assessment (OECD and Statistics Canada, 2011).  Also, a simulation model of the potential long-term economic effects of increasing preschool enrollment to 25 percent or 50 percent in every low-income and middle-income country showed a benefit-to-cost ratio ranging from 6.4 to 17.6, depending on the preschool enrollment rate and the discount rate used (Lancet, 2011).

Indeed, poor and neglected children benefit disproportionately from early childhood development programs, making these interventions among the more compelling policy tools for fighting poverty and reducing inequality.  ECD programs are comprised of a range of interventions that aim for: a healthy pregnancy; proper nutrition with exclusive breast feeding through six months of age and adequate micronutrient content in diet; regular growth monitoring and immunization; frequent and structured interactions with a caring adult; and improving the parenting skills of caregivers.