Paediatric Nursing
Paediatric nursing tests growth and development, newborn care, immunisation, nutrition and integrated management of childhood illness. Questions often hinge on age-specific norms and triage of dehydration or respiratory distress.
Core rules
- India's universal immunisation schedule: BCG, OPV-0 and hepatitis B at birth; pentavalent, OPV, rotavirus, PCV and fIPV at 6, 10 and 14 weeks; measles–rubella and JE at 9–12 months; boosters at 16–24 months.
- Milestones: social smile at 6 weeks, head control at 3 months, sitting without support at 6–8 months, walking at 12–15 months.
- Diarrhoea: give ORS and zinc for 14 days. WHO dehydration signs include sunken eyes, slow skin pinch and lethargy.
- Newborn: APGAR at 1 and 5 minutes; skin-to-skin contact and breastfeeding within one hour.
Worked example
A 7-month-old has diarrhoea, sunken eyes and a skin pinch returning in 3 seconds. This is severe dehydration. The nurse starts Plan C: IV Ringer's lactate 100 mL/kg, giving 30 mL/kg in the first hour for infants under 12 months, then reassesses. Reasoning: severe dehydration needs parenteral rehydration before ORS.
Traps
Giving antibiotics for ordinary acute diarrhoea; mixing ORS with the wrong water volume; assuming all infants walk by 12 months; missing danger signs such as inability to feed.