Paediatrics Risk Assessment

---
name: paediatrics-risk-assessment
description: |
  Identify, score and control the risks in work for infants, children and adolescents and their parents in a children's hospital ward and paediatric clinic.
  TRIGGERS - Use when a paediatrician needs a risk assessment for infants, children and adolescents and their parents in a children's hospital ward and paediatric clinic.
category: Paediatrics
license: MIT
version: 1.0
---
# Risk Assessment — Paediatrics

Identify, score and control the risks in work for infants, children and adolescents and their parents in a children's hospital ward and paediatric clinic. The deliverable is a risk assessment with likelihood/impact scores, controls and owners.
This skill is written for a paediatrician working with infants, children and adolescents and their parents in a children's hospital ward and paediatric clinic.

## When to use
- You are a paediatrician preparing, delivering or reviewing this part of your work in a children's hospital ward and paediatric clinic.
- You need a defensible, repeatable approach that produces a risk assessment with likelihood/impact scores, controls and owners.
- A colleague, auditor or client asks how this was done and what evidence supports it.

## Key Concepts
| Term | Meaning |
|------|---------|
| Developmental milestones | skills most children reach by a given age |
| Safeguarding | protecting children from abuse and neglect |
| Bronchiolitis | a common viral chest infection in infants |

## Workflow
1. **Step 1** - Map the activity step by step and list what could go wrong at each stage for infants, children and adolescents and their parents and staff
2. **Step 2** - Score each risk for likelihood and impact, giving special weight to safeguarding concerns missed
3. **Step 3** - For every high risk, define a control that removes, reduces or contains it, using paediatric examination sets where relevant
4. **Step 4** - Record the assessment in growth charts, assign an owner to each control, and set a review date
5. **Step 5** - Brief everyone involved before work starts; stop and reassess if conditions in a children's hospital ward and paediatric clinic change

## Profession-Specific Components
| Component | Details for Paediatrics |
|-----------|-------------------------------|
| Core documentation | growth charts; immunisation records; developmental assessments; safeguarding notes |
| Core tools & equipment | paediatric examination sets; growth measurement equipment; pulse oximeters; nebulisers |
| People involved | infants, children and adolescents and their parents; the paediatrician; colleagues and other services in a children's hospital ward and paediatric clinic |
| Primary record | growth charts — keep it current, dated and attributable |

## Output Format
**Context:** [Situation in a children's hospital ward and paediatric clinic] | **Objective:** [What this must achieve] | **Audience:** [infants, children and adolescents and their parents and other stakeholders]

The finished output is a risk assessment with likelihood/impact scores, controls and owners, structured as:
1. Summary of position and evidence
2. Detail, following the workflow above
3. Decisions, actions, owners and dates
4. Review point and escalation route

### Action Plan
1. **Immediate:** Confirm scope, consent and the evidence available in growth charts.
2. **Short-term:** Complete the workflow steps and record outcomes against immunisation coverage.
3. **Medium-term:** Review results, close actions, and update local procedures in a children's hospital ward and paediatric clinic.

## Success Metrics
| Metric | Target | Method |
|--------|--------|--------|
| immunisation coverage | Agree a local target and track the trend | Measured from growth charts and reviewed on a set cycle |
| growth monitoring completion | Agree a local target and track the trend | Measured from growth charts and reviewed on a set cycle |
| developmental referral timeliness | Agree a local target and track the trend | Measured from growth charts and reviewed on a set cycle |
| parent satisfaction scores | Agree a local target and track the trend | Measured from growth charts and reviewed on a set cycle |

## Guardrails & Quality Checks
- Never let this happen: safeguarding concerns missed.
- Never let this happen: weight-based dosing errors.
- Never let this happen: delayed developmental referral.
- Work only within the competence and authority of a paediatrician; escalate or refer anything beyond it.
- Record facts and observations, not speculation, and keep records confidential to a children's hospital ward and paediatric clinic's rules.
- Verify names, dates, figures and measurements twice before anything is issued or signed off.
- Use only real, verified information from the case in hand — never invent results, credentials or evidence.

## Example (illustrative)
A paediatrician in a children's hospital ward and paediatric clinic applies this workflow for infants, children and adolescents and their parents: they open
growth charts, work through the five steps using paediatric examination sets, and close by recording
the outcome against immunisation coverage and agreeing the next review date. (Illustrative example only —
replace with the real details of the case in hand.)