What makes Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta different from many health organizations is that the center of care focuses on the family unit instead of the individual

What makes Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta different from many health organizations is that the center of care focuses on the family unit instead of the individual. What this means is that the healthcare team recognizes that the entire family is affected by illness and the totality of the child’s environment plays a critical role in the success of treatment for the child. This can bring about many challenges from basic nursing interventions like IV pokes to educating the entire family upon discharge for the care of the child at home. McEwen and Wills describe concepts that affect a nurse’s role at Children’s Healthcare including the individual person: Physical, emotional, psycho-social and scholastic. The environment, which includes: Family interaction, absence from school, economic situation, culture and language. The child’s health or well-being is in relation to the stress of his/her home-life, self-confidence with peers, security of being nurtured and quality of life. Finally Nursing integrates these paradigms with science, knowledge, art, experience and care (McEwen ; Wells, p.41-42).