The impact of parental accompaniment in paediatric trauma: a helicopter emergency medical service (HEMS) perspective

Alan Cowley, Neal Durge

Major trauma remains a significant cause of mortality and morbidity in young people and adolescents throughout the western world. Both the physical and psychological consequences of trauma are well documented and it is shown that peri-traumatic factors play a large part in the emotional recovery of children involved in trauma. Indeed, parental anxiety levels may play one of the biggest roles. There are no publically available guidelines on pre-hospital accompaniment, and where research has been done on parental presence it often focuses primarily on the parents or staff, rather than the child themselves. Whilst acknowledging the impact on parents and staff, the importance of the emotional wellbeing of the child should be reinforced, to reduce the likelihood of developing symptoms in keeping with post-traumatic stress disorder. This non-systematic literature review, aims to examine the impact of parental accompaniment to hospital, following paediatric trauma, and to help pre-hospital clinicians decide whether accompaniment would be of benefit to their patient population. The lack of published data does not enable a formal recommendation of parental accompaniment in the helicopter to be mandated, though it should be the preference in land based conveyance. Future research is needed into the emotional recovery of children after trauma, as well as the experiences of patient, parent and staff during conveyance.