Reply 1

Child abuse and maltreatment is not limited to a particular age—it can occur in the infant, toddler, preschool, and school-age years. Choose one of the four age groups and outline the types of abuse most commonly seen among children of that age.

Child abuse can occur from infancy to age 18. Child abuse in the school-age child is important for caregivers, friends, teachers, or others to report as soon as possible. Four types of common abuse mechanisms include physical, sexual, emotional, and neglect. (CDC Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2020) The first is physical abuse, “this occurs when someone such as a child parents or day care provider hits or otherwise hurts a child.” (The Whole Child, 2018 ) The second is sexual, “this happens when someone performs a sexual act on the child or forces a child to perform one on them. (The Whole Child, 2018 ) Emotional abuse, “this occurs when a parent treats a child in ways that make the child feel unwanted, or like a bad person so much that the child’s normal development, learning or behavior suffers.” (The Whole Child, 2018 ) Lastly, neglect, “is the failure to meet a child’s basic physical and emotional needs. These needs include housing, food, clothing, education, and access to medical care.” (CDC Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2020)

Describe warning signs and physical and emotional assessment findings the nurse may see that could indicate child abuse.

Warning signs for abuse include disturbance in sleep patterns, extreme fears, mood swings, fear of being left alone with certain people, sexual activities with toys, loss of appetite, and pain in stomach or genital area. (The Whole Child, 2018 ) Physical symptoms such as unexplained bruises, bleeding, or redness on the child’s body and/or genital area are all signs of abuse. (The Whole Child, 2018 )

Discuss cultural variations of health practices that can be misidentified as child abuse.

There are many cultural health practices that can be misidentified as abuse and here are a few. “Coining or caogio, is an example of an ancient healing practice still being practiced, today. This dermabrasion therapy, which involves intense rubbing of the skin, is used by Vietnamese, Cambodians, and Laotians to treat a variety of illnesses.” (Killion, 2017) Another type of health practice similar to coining is cupping, which many ethnic groups use to “remove toxins.” (Killion, 2017)

Describe the reporting mechanism in your state and nurse responsibilities related to the reporting of suspected child abuse.

Any person can report child abuse but some are mandated to report abuse. I live in the state of Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families has all the guidelines on reporting child abuse. Any person can contact their local Child Protective Services (CPS) agency. Mandated reporters are bound by the law to report suspected child abuse. “ Wisconsin law (48.981(2)) requires that any mandated reporter who has reasonable cause to suspect that a child seen by the person in the course of professional duties has been abused or neglected, or who has reason to believe that a child seen by the person in the course of professional duties has been threatened with abuse or neglect and that abuse or neglect of the child will occur, make a report to county CPS or law enforcement.” (Wisconin Department of Children and Families, n.d.) The list of mandated professional is long and nurses are included in this list. The nurse would report the suspected abuse to the county in which the child resides. The nurse is immune from criminal or civil liability if making the report in good faith, the nurse will be informed by the county what action was taken, and the nurse that intentionally fails to report child abuse could be fined up to $1000 or imprisoned no more than six months or both. (Wisconin Department of Children and Families, n.d.) As nurses, we must be diligent in our assessments and reporting of suspected issues.

References

CDC Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2020, March 5). Retrieved from Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention: https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/childabuseandneglect/index.html

Killion, C. M. (2017, August 21). Cultural Healing Practices that Mimic Child Abuse. Cleveland , Ohio, USA.

The Whole Child. (2018 , November 24). Retrieved from How to Identify Child Abuse Ages 6-12: https://www.thewholechild.org/parent-resources/age-6-12/how-to-identify-child-abuse-ages-6-12/

Wisconin Department of Children and Families. (n.d.). Retrieved August 2, 2020, from Mandated Child Abuse and Neglect Reporters: https://dcf.wisconsin.gov/cps/reportabuse

Reply 2

Child abuse can occur at any age in a child’s life and it is important for one to be observant to take note of it. It could happen to anyone even without the caregiver knowing that the child is abused at that point in time. it is a pattern of behavior involving regular physical attacks or acts of deprivation or molestation. Child abuse in the toddler 0-5years is serious because of their vulnerability and dependence on others and the processes involved in neurocognitive and psychosocial development at this age and the type of abuse experienced are physical, sexual, emotional, neglect and shaken baby syndrome.

According to (The whole child 2018) physical abuse “occurs when someone such as a child parents or day care provider hits or otherwise hurts a child.” sexual abuse “occurs when someone performs a sexual act on the child or forces a child to perform one on them, emotional abuse, occurs when a parent treats a child in ways that make the child feel unwanted, or speaks harshly to them causing the child’s normal development, learning or behavior to suffers.”. The need for housing, food, clothing, education, and good medical care is important, if not met leads to deprivation (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2020).

Common signs are unexplained bruises, black eyes, or broken bones, drastic changes in their normal behavior, or appearing to be frightened around certain people, withdraw from situations, imitating sexual behaviors with toys, or refusing to talk about a “secret” with another adult, also underwear stained with blood or has abnormal walking step.

cultural healing practice done in Africa, a child with nail puncture, mum immediately uses some herbal leave juice on site after washing, puts stone on burning fire after which it is applied to the site when red hot. This leaves a big scar, but it works, aim is to prevent tetanus in the child.

Reports of Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of an Adult or Child may be made to the Kansas Protection Report Center by calling 1-800-922-5330. As nurses, we must be diligent in our assessments and reporting of suspected issues I would have to report it to my charge nurse, house coordinator, nurse manager, physician assistance. I would also have to fill out a detailed incident report within 12hours of admission and the police on site would be called to make an investigation.

References

CDC Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2020, March 5). Retrieved from Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention: https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/childabuseandneglect/index.html

Kansas department for children and families(n.d.). Prevention and protection services. Retrieved fromhttp://www.dcf.ks.gov/services/pps/pages/reportchildabuseandneglect.aspx

The Whole Child. (2018, November 24). Retrieved from How to Identify Child Abuse Ages 0-https://www.thewholechild.org/parent-resources/age-0-5/how-to-identify-child-abuse-ages-0-5/