Nursing Care of Infants and Children with Bronchiolitis

Bronchiolitis is the most common cause of lower respiratory infection in the first year of life. It is a leading cause of acute illness and hospitalization for infants and young children worldwide. Previous studies have demonstrated that at least 1% of children younger than 24 months of age are hospitalized for bronchiolitis. These hospitalizations have been found to consume a significant amount of health care resources. The primary treatment of bronchiolitis remains largely supportive with administration of fluids and supplementary oxygen, observation and mechanical ventilation if needed. Other types of treatment remain controversial. Successful treatment of this diagnosis requires coordination of care of a multidisciplinary team. Pediatric nurses and advanced practice pediatric nurses in both primary and acute care clinical settings can play a major role in educating other health care professionals on the use of Evidence-based practice and why it is important to decrease costs and improve patients' outcome by changing the traditional and habitual use of diagnostic and therapeutic options that are no longer recommended by the most recent guidelines. The purpose of this review was to identify the best evidence available for the updated management of infants and children with bronchiolitis. This updated simplified management of infants with bronchiolitis would result in not only decreasing the cost of care but also result in a better outcome as mentioned in guidelines according to the recent literature.