Objectives
This study was designed to develop a descriptive profile of parents and caregivers who bring their children to the emergency department for non-urgent issues as well as exploring the reasons for presenting to an urban hospital pediatric emergency department for non-urgent conditions. Such work is necessary in order to develop effective interventions.
Methods
A total of 106 parents/caregivers whose child was triaged with a non-emergent/urgent condition completed a 15–20 minute computerized survey (English and Spanish) in an urban pediatric emergency department.
Results
The majority of respondents described themselves as Latino (76%) and foreign-born (62%). About half (49%) reported having an annual income of less than $20,000 and 43% of respondents did not have health insurance for themselves. Almost all (95%) of the index children had a primary care physician and health insurance. In spite of being triaged as non-urgent, over half (63%) described their child’s condition as “very” or “extremely” urgent. About half of the respondents reported not receiving basic information on childhood illnesses from their child’s doctor. Reasons for non-urgent visits seemed to revolve around issues of convenience and perception of quality of care.
Conclusions
Interventions should focus on health literacy and ensure that parents are provided relevant and accurate education on pediatric illnesses and common safety concerns; by increasing parental education on pediatric health, parents may be better able to assess acuity of their child’s health issues.
JITT seems to be an effective tool in medical education for reinforcing previously learned skills. JITT may offer other possibilities for enhancing medical education.
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