Abstract:
BACKGROUND: Understanding children’s communication development is very important to their growth. Nurses, being the frontiers of the health institutions, are required to have basic knowledge of children’s development. However, the role of the nurse in monitoring communication development of children during visits to the hospital is poorly met, especially in the context of identifying communication difficulties.
AIM: This study aims at analyzing the depth of knowledge of nurses about communication milestones of young children from 0 – 5years of age to equip in the monitoring of their communication development.
METHOD: The study adopted the use of a qualitative research design with 26 nurses comprising of general, enrolled and community health nurses. General Nurses are professional nurses trained in all aspects of nursing in order to provide quality health care to any patient they may come into contact with whereas a critical care nurse is a nurse who has specialized in providing quality health care to patients who are critically ill. Enrolled nurses are trained to assist the professional nurses in providing care to patients whiles community health nurses are trained to educate and promote healthy lifestyles in the community.
Semi-structured questionnaires were used during individual interview sessions with the nurses. Data obtained was collated and analyzed using thematic analysis.
RESULTS: The knowledge that nurses have about speech and language development of a child was in line with some communication milestones. They had fair knowledge but lacked the in-depth knowledge of typical language development of a child. Surveillance for communication disorders was next to non-existent as little knowledge in the typical, hampers identifying the atypical. The limitations in knowledge negatively affected the quality of education given to parents and caregivers. The nurses reported that they would like to undergo training in order to get more information on typical communication milestones, identification of disorders and educational guidelines for parents to adhere to in order to greatly improve the care given to children.
CONCLUSION: This study has shown that the knowledge that nurses have with regards to communication milestones in children is very limited. There is a need for a revamp in the curricula of nurses to include communication milestones like other developmental milestones. Speech and language therapy should be embraced in order to expand instructional or educational practices. An interdisciplinary approach involving all health team members should be utilized in order to make use of all available resources.
KEYWORDS: Communication Milestones, Continuous Professional Development, Child Language, Surveillance, Child Health, Therapy, Intervention.
