Parents unsure of how to care for their children during the COVID-19 pandemic have a new toolkit in their corner thanks to a pair of University of Alberta professors.
“The goal behind this work is to break down barriers, to make complex health information accessible,” said Shannon Scott, U of A nursing professor and Canada Research Chair.
Videos and interactive infographics released by Scott and pediatrics professor Lisa Hartling cover caring for a child sick with COVID-19, vaccinations and how to socialize children during the pandemic and beyond.
For the past 15 years, Scott and Hartling have created similar resources for parents, addressing issues such as croup.
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The final material is designed for and with parents.
“This is not armchair theorizing. “It’s not a bunch of academics sitting in offices thinking, ‘Hey, this is what parents need to know,'” Scott said. “We actually actively involve parents in all stages of development of these tools.”
Shortly after the start of the pandemic in March 2020, the two parents were interviewed about their experiences with their children during the one-time event. Scott said there was a lot of stigma about having a child who contracted COVID in the first two waves of the pandemic, and saw that stigma diminish during the third wave — around the end of 2020.
“In the early interviews, parents talked a lot about confusion and uncertainty related to the changing recommendations around isolation and how to navigate this piece,” Scott said, noting that more reliable information became more readily available as the early stages of the pandemic continues. “Obviously, there are still a lot of questions out there, but there were a little more clear paths in terms of where to access certain types of information.”
More recent interviews revealed a new sentiment to Hartling.
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“They just really needed confirmation that it’s okay to have questions, that everyone has many, many questions, and they were really struggling with decisions for their child,” Hartling said. “I think they needed confirmation that decision-making in itself is challenging.
“We heard that parents were frustrated with the changing information, changing guidelines, etc., and where to go and how to tell if something is reliable and valid, so we really tried in our tools to point parents to resources and organizations that are reliable.”
The videos will be added to the rotation of similar videos seen in more than 380 AHS facilities across the province. Health care systems in provinces like Manitoba and BC are also using the videos the duo helped create.
The translation of Emergency Knowledge for Children (TREKK) is another way for the COVID-related information to emergency departments.
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“It’s a network that collaborates general emergency departments with pediatric emergency departments,” Scott said. We’ve helped develop that knowledge mobilization initiative over the past decade-plus.
“They are great for spreading information around the country and to parents.”
The bite-sized videos and infographics are also shared online and on social media.
There are plans to translate the information into other languages, but that part of the project lacks funding.
COVID claims more lives in Alberta
The province’s latest COVID-19 information release showed the coronavirus continues to take lives in Alberta.
In the week ending December 5, 46 new deaths were determined to be from COVID-19, bringing the pandemic death toll to 5,262. All the deaths appear to be in Albertans 60+.
Hospitalizations and ICU cases were down from the previous week. Hospitalizations were down 35 to 1,042 this week, and ICU cases fell 8 to 38.
The seven-day average positivity rate on PCR tests increased nearly half a percent to 14.17 percent, and the seven-day total of new documented cases was 1,147, 167 less than the previous week.
PCR testing in Alberta is limited to people at clinical risk or who live and/or work in high-risk environments.
Two hospitals in the Edmonton zone, two in the Calgary zone and one in the South zone have declared COVID-19 outbreaks in the past week.
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Edmonton’s Misericordia Community Hospital declared an outbreak on Nov. 30 when seven people tested positive in one unit and another unit tested two people positive for COVID on Dec. 2.
On Monday, a unit at the Royal Alexandra Hospital declared an outbreak when seven patients tested positive.
At Calgary’s South Health Campus, a unit declared an outbreak Wednesday and the Strathmore District Health Center declared an outbreak Monday when five patients tested positive.
Chinook Regional Hospital also declared an outbreak in a unit on Monday after three patients tested positive for COVID-19.
An outbreak is declared when it is determined that there has been COVID transmission in the hospital.
Provincewide, 90 percent of the 223 ICU beds were occupied on Wednesday.
© 2022 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
