Recommended procedures for doctors and nurses in the management of Kawasaki Disease

Kawasaki disease is known to frequently occur in children below five years, and more specifically in male infants and children of Asian background. The acute disease has been on the increase despite today's advanced modern medicine and technology. Given this trend, this thesis intended to describe the recommended procedures for doctors and nurses in the management of Kawasaki Disease (KD). However, the writers of this thesis focused more on the recommended procedures for nurses in the management of Kawasaki Disease. The method of this thesis is a literature review with inductive qualitative data analysis. To gather relevant literature, two databases were searched, these included CINAHL and Laurea FINNA, using some including and excluding criteria 7 articles were selected and analyzed. The raw data obtained from the analysis of the 7 articles selected were further classified into five subcategories and then further into 2 categories. Findings indicated that doctors and nurses play a vital role in the managing Kawasaki disease as they help make early referral to pediatric department when they suspect Kawasaki disease suspection, nurses are responsible for administering medication on a timely basis for easier management, nurses monitor and evaluate the progress of recovering patients while at the same time giving assurances to patients’ family members that KD is managable. This was done to reduce the probability of parents and relatives of children diagnosed with KD from suffering depression and anxiety due to fear of losing their loved ones. Since Kawasaki disease’s etiology is unknown,the writers of this thesis recommend that nurses continually educate themselves with the latest developments in pediatric disease conditions so that they understand better the signs and symptoms of KD, and other diseases which imitate KD