El cuidado de los adolescentes en los hospitales españoles: los pacientes invisibles

Abstract

The treatment of adolescents within the Spanish hospital system has a series of deficiencies as regards international quality parameters.

Perspectives of Youths and Adults Improve the Care of Hospitalized Adolescents in Spain

“…If the room had to be shared either with someone of the same age or with the same pathology, the age criterion was preferred in all four groups. With regard to this, there was notable disagreement between the preferences of the adolescent patients, the parents, the clinical staff, and the rules of many hospitals that admit adolescents mainly in adult units (Ullán, et al, 2010).…”

“…The characteristics of this hospital represent the average of Spanish hospitals of the same size. This hospital follows the general rule of admitting patients in adult units as of 14-15 years of age, as in 80% of the Spanish hospitals, according to the available data (Ullán, et al, 2010). It would be appropriate to carry out multicenter studies to confirm the results in this aspect.…”

“…None of the aforementioned investigations of adolescents' preferences with regard to their hospital care was carried out in Spain. We therefore considered it necessary to develop an assessment instrument adapted to the situations of Spanish hospitals and, more specifically, to the characteristics of the care received in them by adolescent patients (Ullán, Gonzalez, & Manzanera, 2010). The questionnaire included 15 Likert-type items to tap the importance of diverse aspects for the improvement of the adolescents' stay at the hospital, 6 questions with various response options about their preferences concerning their roommate and the accompanying person at night, and one question that requested the participants to imagine they had to advise the hospital about how to improve the situation of hospitalized adolescents, selecting from among seven options the one they thought should be carried out first.…”

Hospital Designs for Patients of Different Ages

“…However, the degree of adjustment of the hospital services to the needs of adolescent patients is very limited and, as mentioned, adolescents are under-represented in the research on hospitalization and health services, to the point that, one could sometimes allude to the "invisibility" of the adolescents in them (Ullán, González Celador, & Manzanera, 2010). Adolescents are treated either as children or as adults in the hospital.…”

Tuning: personalización de objetos o creación de objetos

“…En la Unidad de Psiquiatría de Adolescentes del Hospital Gregorio Marañón, se trabajó con el grupo de adolescentes para la realización de un autorretrato, interviniendo un clic de playmobil para reflexionar sobre la apariencia física y la construcción de la identidad. En la Unidad de Oncología del mismo hospital, el trabajo con los adolescentes se planteó desde otra perspectiva, dado que los efectos de la enfermedad y su tratamiento en la apariencia física de los pacientes hace que sea delicado tratar el autorretrato (Ullán et al, 2009). En lugar de realizar un autorretrato, las participantes modificaron el muñeco diseñando el pijama que les gustaría llevar, dado que el que les proporciona el hospital no es demasiado apropiado para su edad.…”