Paelon Memorial Hospital Provides “Back To School” Health Assessment Checklist
Mary Nnah
The numerous fun activities children engage in during the long summer holidays often expose them to bacteria, viruses, and potentially harmful diseases, which can easily be transmitted. In addition, children are at a critical point of development and need routine health checks to proactively manage any deficiency/defects in growth and development.
Consequently, as a new school session is about to start, parents need to ensure that children are in good health for school resumption.
It is for this reason that Paelon Memorial Hospital is providing a “Back To School” Health Assessment Checklist with the primary objective to identify potential health problems, including those that could impair learning with a view to averting, correcting, and mitigating them.
According to the CEO of Paelon Memorial Hospital, Dr. Ngozi Onyia, the Health Assessment Checklist is not meant to exclude any child from school. While noting that, “The benefits of these health checks cannot be overemphasized as the defects are identified and interventions are made, which can save lives, as well as optimise the learning opportunities or prevent chronic ill health like the provision of Epipens for children prone to anaphylaxis, Metered Dose Inhalers for asthmatic children, Glasses for correction of refractory errors for visually impaired children, Ear syringing or Gromet insertions or Hearing aids for children with conductive or sensorineural hearing loss, and nutritional advice for growth problems.”
Noting that history taking is done via a well-designed, customised questionnaire to exclude chronic ailments such as asthma/allergies, Sickle Cell disease, Diabetes mellitus, Seizure disorders, Heart disease, and Immunization history including compulsory and optional vaccines, the hospital revealed further that the Hence, the following Health Assessment Checklist has been developed by the Paelon pediatric team to ensure that children are fit to return to school.
Physical examination includes Growth Monitoring, which includes, height, weight, and blood pressure monitoring due to the identified increase of hypertension in younger people; assessment of the cardiovascular system to rule out cardiovascular risk and Peak Expiratory Flow Rate for suspected asthmatics.
There is also Developmental Tests, which include: vision assessment; visual acuity, color blindness; speech and hearing screening tests, Neurological function assessment, and Social skills assessment.
Another aspect of the checklist includes a Blood test/ X-ray and which aims to confirm genotype and blood group in case of emergencies; a Hemoglobin test because iron is important for cognition and a Chest x-ray to rule out lung infections such as tuberculosis.
There is also the Vaccinations aspect which will provide a detailed vaccination history and review of vaccination records while a missed vaccine can consequently be administered.
He noted further that all national programme immunisation (NPI) vaccines and optional vaccines like Flu, Meningitis, Typhoid, Chicken pox, MMR Cholera and HPV (optional)are optional.
Last but not least on the checklist is the Allergy Screening, explaining that there there was a rising incidence of respiratory and skin conditions as a result of allergies.
Paelon Memorial Hospital began as a pediatric hospital in memory of the founder’s special needs child, Patricia Elozie Onyia, Over the years, the institution has grown to include other practices but still maintains a particular dedication to the care of children. With a team of specialists trained in the care of children, parents can perform any of the highlighted tests at any of their facilities.
