Paediatric emergency medicine practice in Nigeria: a narrative review

Abstract

The practice of paediatric emergency medicine in Nigeria is still evolving, and laden with enormous challenges which contribute to adverse outcomes of childhood illnesses in emergency settings. Deaths from childhood illnesses presenting as emergencies contribute to overall child mortality rates in Nigeria. This narrative review discusses existing structures, organization, and practice of paediatric emergency in Nigeria. It highlights some of the challenges and suggests ways of surmounting them in order to reduce deaths in the children emergency units in Nigerian hospitals. Important aspects of this review include current capacity and need for capacity development, equipment needs for emergency care, quality of service in the context of inadequate healthcare funding and the need for improvement.