My answers.
A) How do any of you feel about this situation if you have ever had to encounter it?

Mind you I am an LPN and we do Peds home care in 8-12 hour shifts. Most o four patients are dev delayed. It's par for the course.

B) Do you feel that when going through nursing school that they focus on the behavioral characteristics of these individuals and how to care for them?

Heck no, there was slim to NO instruction on this....in fact, one of my classmates was hired by my agency, came to orient and asked the mother how the patient became "retarted"! He was severely dev delayed dt prematurity. I dont think any of us were the least bit prepared for a situation like that. But there were a lot of things that we didnt know that could have only have been learned on the job.

C) Do you feel that the staff that accompanies them are as knowledgeable on their ailments and behavioral conditions as per say their guardians?

Yes and sometimes more knowledgeable as they are their caregivers on a daily basis and often since discharge from the hospital. It really depends tho on the duration of care and how involved the guardians are. There is often denial and post traumatic stress disorder going around with these patients caregivers. I'd have to say its different patient to patient and depends on a lot of factors.

D) Do you feel that with the increased life expectancy of these individuals that your jobs as nurses will in the future become more difficult as you will have to deal with the norm aging conditions on top of the existing conditions that this group of people already have (thyroidism, skin conditions, lack of mental stability)

I think that dealing with added persoanl hygiene issues, more meds, more medical approaches is the easy part of caring for the patient. I'll take medical issues over psychological/emotional issues any day of the week.

With all that said, I learned more from PT, ST, and developmental therapists than anyone. As nurses we tend to take care of daily physical needs such as bathing etc but if we have the tools to add the developmental therapy component to our care I think it really benefits the patient.