NR 599 CDC MILESTONE TRACKER

NR 599 CDC MILESTONE TRACKER CDC Milestone Tracker Holly Murray Chamberlain College of Nursing NR 599: Nursing Informatics for Advanced Practice Dr. Penny Jan 14, 2020 Name CDC Milestone Tracker Author Dr. Rosa Arriaga collaborated with Atlanta Georgia Institute of Technology students and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention “Learn the Signs. Act Early” program to develop the CDC Milestone tracker (Arriaga, n.d.). Endorsement The Center for Disease Control contributed to the development of the application and endorsed the use to track a child’s life milestones from two months of age through five years (Arriaga, n.d.). Operation This application is developed for use on a mobile device and is an appropriate platform due to the ease and accessibility of the app contents. Parents of young children are often challenged with time availability, so having the technology to use a mobile device enhances access and utilization, allowing parents to capture important child milestones in real-time when it is convenient and timely. Aesthetics The application is well designed and very user friendly. The background colors are pleasant, and each page is easy to navigate without overwhelming the viewer with graphics and words. The sidebar icons are large, and the title font bold, making it easy to read and select the desired destination. Another notable feature is the lower icon bar allowing for easy navigation to different app sections such as the tracker, children, appointments, and settings. The defined sections create a simple and effortless navigation process to track children through the stages of growth and development and does not necessitate the need for detailed how-to instructions (Arriaga, n.d.). Purpose The purpose of the application is to provide parents with an easy and user-friendly way to capture and aggregate a child’s important growth and developmental milestone from two months to five years old (Arriaga, n.d.). The application performs multiple functions, such as providing parents with important information, instructions, and tips on how their child should be developmentally progressing and tools to help them achieve their goals. Another helpful function is the integration of a communication tool that allows parents to communicate with the child’s pediatric medical provider so that concerns can be immediately identified, communicated, and addressed (Arriaga, n.d.). Clinical Decision Making One of the biggest challenges for parents is knowing the different child milestones for each age, and one the biggest challenges for pediatric medical providers in developing and communicating a specific individualized child milestone plan each child is different and may hit some but perhaps not all milestones within a given timeframe. This application helps parents fill in the gap by providing a checklist of specific examples on what is and is not an appropriate child milestone then provides tips on how to achieve it (Arriaga, n.d.). Safety One of the biggest safety concerns is that parents will rely exclusively on the application contents and not seek pediatric medical provider advice when it is appropriate. Another concern is that parents may overlook or misinterpret milestones leaving the child without the necessary pediatric medical provider intervention. On the other end of the spectrum, there is the risk of overzealous parents who continuously reach out to the pediatric medical provider with unfounded concerns resulting in provider fatigue (Arriaga, n.d.). The application risk can be mitigated by encouraging parents to partner with pediatric medical providers to understand what the milestones are and when concerns should be escalated to pediatric medical provider review. Privacy/Security The privacy policy statement outlines the CDC personal information collection process. The summary states that limited information is collected regarding usage of digital media such as internet access, type of operating system, web browser, date, time, along with count on the number of times the site was accessed (Arriaga, n.d.). The privacy policy does indicate that personal individual information is not shared unless the user provides permission for distribution. The privacy policy states that cookies are collected, but the user has the ability to opt-out of collection. Finally, the privacy and security policy addresses the management of application by the federal government and indicates that third party websites are used by the CDC to collect, engage, and share information. As indicated in several sections of the policy, personal information is collected but not shared without individual consent (Arriaga, n.d.). Although the risk of a breach is not specially outlined in the policy, it does state the users will be notified policy changes through email communication. User This application is geared for the use of parents with children within the age range of two months to five years of age (Arriaga, n.d.). It is also important to mention medical providers have the ability to interact and communicate with the parents regarding child milestone expectations and concerns. Distribution This application was created for use for all parents with children ages two months to five years old without regard to race, religion, gender, nationality, or socioeconomic status. The goal was to provide a national mobile platform to educate parents and provide a collection mechanism for milestone accomplishments (Arriaga, n.d.). Credibility This application has immediate credibility because it was developed in conjunction with Dr. Rosa Arriaga and a division of the federal government known as the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention. The CDC works with the Department of Health and Human Services to provide evidence-based facts to populate the application data (Arriaga, n.d.). Relevance I was unable to locate a review date on the application information page but did locate a review date of November 1, 2019, on the “Learn the Signs. Act Early” CDC webpage which influences the data within the milestone application. The surveillance of milestone tracking is a recognized important component of childhood development, and the U.S. federal government has made great strides to promote the importance of milestone recognition to parents through education and, in this case, development of easy to use mobile milestone application. Additional research outlines the complexity of family dynamics supports the use of mobile technology so that multiple family members can participate in child-rearing responsibilities and help monitor and capture anticipated child milestones (Suh Hyewon, 2016). All of this to say, the application is very important and very relevant in assisting parents in staying engaged with their child’s milestones in an easy to use mobile platform. I The following scenario is an example of a real-world application. Ms. Murray is a single 35 year old female working full time as a registered nurse and just adopted her first child, who is an 11-month-old baby girl named Aspen. As a first time mom with no child-rearing experience or information on the child’s first 11 months of life, Ms. Murray is anxious and unsure if her baby girl will suffer any developmental delays. Hence, she makes an office appointment with her pediatrician to discuss her concerns and solicit needed milestone advice. The pediatrician listens to Ms. Murray’s concerns and refers her to the CDC milestone mobile application for guidance on what to look for with her new 11-month-old daughter. Ms. Murray downloads the application while in the pediatrician’s office, and they review the checklist together so that Ms. Murray knows how to use the application. Ms. Murray left the pediatrician’s office, feeling much more prepared to assess Aspen’s developmental growth and milestones. At five years of age, Aspen was not progressing as expected with written and verbal development. She was not able to pronounce simple words and consistently unable to print letters or numbers. Ms. Murray accessed the milestone application then reached out to her pediatrician with her concerns via email communication. After the consultation, the pediatrician recommended an appointment with a speech specialist and education psychologist who identified some potential learning deficits. A plan of care was developed and immediately implemented to help Aspen progress with her speech and writing skills. Ms. Murray felt relieved and grateful that the application provided the guidance she needed to order to provide the very best opportunities for her daughter. In summary, child milestone awareness is such an important key to successful childhood growth and development. The CDC has developed easy to use mobile tools to engage parents in the evaluation and monitoring of childhood milestones. Through the use of an easy to understand mobile application parents receive evidence-based guidance to track their child’s progress and are empowered to act early in order to provide their child with the opportunities and developmental outcomes. References Arriaga, R. (n.d.). CDC Milestone Tracker [Mobile application software]. Suh Hyewon, H. (2016). Baby steps text: Feasibility study of an SMS-based tool for tracking children's developmental progress. AMIA Annual Symposium Proceedings, 2016, .