“When EMS personnel do have to provide care for children, it can cause a lot of anxiety. Their pediatric care skills may be rusty because they’ve had few encounters with children beyond their initial simulation training. Also, it’s also a vulnerable population and may remind them of loved ones who are children."
In the New Pittsburgh Courier's August 18 issue, Pitt Pediatrics assistant professor Sylvia Owusu-Ansah, MD, MPH, FAAP, discusses the importance of prehospital care for children and adolescents across the Pittsburgh area. She also highlights her research areas targeting racial disparities in health care and asthma treatments, the latter of which comprise a large number of hospital admissions.
Owusu-Ansah serves as the associate vice chair of diversity, equity, and inclusion for Pitt Pediatrics and EMS medical director at UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh. She holds a secondary faculty appointment in Pitt's Department of Emergency Medicine.