Nursing Guide for Pediatric Neuroscience Patients

This unique book looks at nursing care for both operative and nonoperative neurological disorders in children. Written by leading authors across the world, mostly Registered Nurses, Advanced Practice Nurses, as well as Physican Assistants, pediatric neurosurgeons, and neurologists, ensuring international contributions as well as a comprehensive approach.  This book  presents an overview of Neonatal, Infant, and Pediatric Neurologic Assessment, the common Neurosurgical Interventions, seizures, epilepsy and even looks at Ethics and Palliative Care. Each chapter follows a specific format providing an in-depth knowledge of different pathologies such as Scoliosis, Nerve Injury, or Chiari Malformation, in a concise easy-to-read format.

It is designed for professionals and students who care for children with neurological diseases process or help manage these children in the inpatient or ambulatory setting. The format for all chapters include key elements for the reader to understand the patient disorder, learn how to perform focused assessments, as well as anticipate and prevent complications. In addition to nursing care of the patient, each chapter include a section on patient and family education both during the hospitalization and in the ambulatory setting. Case scenarios, with videos, include analysis to understand what to expect, anticipate, or monitor and why. In addition, the reader learns when to contact a provider and eases the way to teach patients or parents during hospitalization or discharge.

Kentlee Battick MSN, RN, CNL, CNRN is the Neuroscience Clinical Nurse Leader (CNL) for Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital (JHACH), for the past 12 years, and a total of 21 years as a Registered Nurse. JHACH is a 259-bed hospital with 43 pediatric medical and surgical subspecialists including a 6 bed Seizure Monitoring Unit. As the CNL for Neuroscience patients, she is providing direct clinical leadership at the point of care, across the patient’s stay from admission to discharge collaborating the both the health care team and the patients/families. These efforts advance care delivery through evidence, process improvement and case reviews to target optimal outcomes.  Kentlee is able to enhance the continuity of care as patients move among different areas of the hospital serving as a vital resource for the family and all the members of the health care team. One of her projects was creating the very 1st   multidisciplinary neuroscience specific nursing education series which includes lectures from Neurosurgeons, Neurologists, EEG technicians, Ketogenic dietician, rehab medicine and neuropsychology. She has had multiple quality improvement projects that have assisted in improving the care of neuroscience patients. Kentlee works closely with our Epileptology and Neurosurgery providers to merge needs and goals for both the care team, patient and family to provide the best outcome possible.

Nir Shimony MD, is an Associate Professor of Neurosurgery at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center and an Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins University. He serves as a pediatric neurosurgeon at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital, and as a neurosurgeon at Semmes-Murphey Clinic in Memphis, Tennessee, USA.  Dr. Shimony is an early-career neurosurgeon with extensive experience as both a principal investigator and co-investigator in clinical research. His work includes leadership and participation in randomized controlled trials as well as large retrospective database studies. His primary clinical and research interests focus on pediatric neurosurgery, neuro-oncology, epilepsy surgery, and congenital malformations. 
His prior research has examined ultra-early surgical intervention for catastrophic pediatric epilepsy, demonstrating the potential benefit of early surgery in carefully selected patients, including infants as young as three months of age. He has also studied the use of advanced imaging techniques, including automated segmentation and precise volumetric analysis of brain tumors and peritumoral edema following surgery or adjuvant therapy. This work has contributed to improved understanding of patient selection and treatment planning, including the comparative roles of surgical resection and precision radiation approaches such as radiosurgery. 
In recent years, Dr. Shimony has placed significant emphasis on education and the expansion of neurosurgical knowledge in the areas of spinal cord tumors, brainstem tumors, and epilepsy surgery. He has edited and published two textbooks, as well as a special issue comprising contributions from international leaders in pediatric neuro-oncology. 
His overarching career goal is to integrate clinical and translational research methodologies, including comprehensive clinical phenotyping and molecular and imaging-based biomarkers, to advance prognostic stratification in pediatric neurosurgery. This work aims to support the development of risk-stratified interventional trials designed to improve outcomes for children with complex neurosurgical conditions.

George I Jallo, M.D., Professor of Neurosurgery, Pediatrics and Oncology at the Johns Hopkins University (JHU) School of Medicine, joined the staff in September 2015 as Director, Hough Family Institute for Brain Protection Sciences (IBPS) at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital (JHACH). The neuroscience institute brings together a comprehensive team of neurosurgeons, neurologists, psychiatrists, psychologists, developmental pediatricians, sports medicine and physiatrists who care for pediatric neurological disorders and conditions. He was the previous director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital.  
His areas of expertise include tumors of the brain and spinal cord, intraoperative neurophysiological monitoring for eloquent tumors, use of minimally invasive technologies such as endoscopy and keyhole surgery. He has published more than 300 peer-reviewed scientific articles, 100 book chapters and is co-editor of 6 textbooks on pediatric neurosurgery, pediatric epilepsy surgery and hydrocephalus.