Are children as relatives our responsibility? – How nurses perceive their role in caring for children as relatives of seriously ill patients

Golsäter, Marie; Henricson, Maria; Enskär, Karin; Knutsson, Susanne

doi:10.1016/j.ejon.2016.09.005

Cited by 36 publications

(96 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…This is in line with the results from Chalmers et al (2000) whereby children from the age of 12 describe a lack of clear routines and collaboration between the school and the unit caring for the parent. The need to further develop routines in healthcare services to care for children as relatives is earlier shown (Knutsson, Enskär, Andersson-Gäre, & Golsäter, 2017) and the variations of how nurses working with adult patients perceive their role in caring for children as relatives (Golsäter, Henricson, Enskär, & Knutsson, 2016) argue for the need to improve the communication to be able to support the child.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contributing to making the school a safe place for the child: School nurses’ perceptions of their assignment when caring for children having parents with serious physical illness

2017

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AimTo explore how school nurses perceive their assignment when caring for children having parents with serious physical illness.DesignAn explorative inductive qualitative design.MethodThe study is based on interviews with 16 school nurses. The interviews were subjected to qualitative content analysis.ResultsThe main category, “Contribute in making the school a safe place for the child”, reveals how the school nurses try to contribute to making the school a safe place for a child when his/her parent has a serious physical illness. They support children through individual support, as well as at an overall level in the school health team to make the school, as an organization, a safe place. Routines and collaboration to recognize the child when his/her parent has become ill is described as crucial to accomplishing this assignment.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contributing to making the school a safe place for the child: School nurses’ perceptions of their assignment when caring for children having parents with serious physical illness

2017

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“…These barriers include the lack of professional confidence and/or knowledge in guiding parents in supporting their children and the fear of being emotionally overwhelmed (Dunne, Sullivan, & Kernohan, ; Odling, Norberg, & Danielson, ; Turner et al., , ). In addition, attitudes among nurses range from conviction that children are not their responsibility to awareness that patients' wellbeing can be dependent on feeling that their children are, so to speak, at their side (Golsäter, Henricson, Enskär, & Knutsson, ). The paucity of studies is striking given the centrality of the issue to patient‐centred care and the potentially pivotal role that healthcare professionals play in helping patients promote communication with their children.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contextualisation of patient-centred care: A comparative qualitative study of healthcare professionals' approaches to communicating with seriously ill patients about their dependent children

et al. 2017

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Patients' family relations play an important part in the provision of patient-centred cancer care, not least when healthcare professionals encounter seriously ill patients with dependent children. Little is known about how children are perceived and dealt with in clinical encounters. In this qualitative comparative study, we explore the influence of medical contexts in three Danish hospital wards, haematology, oncological gynaecology and neuro-intensive care, on communication with patients about their children. In exploring the degree to which the inclusion of children in clinical encounters is dependent on context, we took a comparative approach based on fieldwork in wards either exclusively focusing on cancer treatment or partially involved in critical phases of cancer treatment. We conducted 49 semi-structured, in-depth interviews with doctors and nurses, and 27 days of participant observation. The thematic analysis was based on Bateson's conceptualisation of communication. We found that healthcare professionals' approach to children in clinical encounters and the ways in which children were positioned on each ward were influenced by aspects specific to the ward, including the diagnosis and treatments that related specifically to the patient. Our findings suggest the need to explore further the influence of medical contexts on the inclusion of children in patient communication. K E Y W O R D Scancer, comparative study, families with dependent children, intensive care units, patientcentred care, qualitative research

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“…Previous research has shown that such emotionally and existentially challenging encounters may create a need for protection and distance among health professionals (Franklin et al, 2018). Golsäter et al (2016) studied how nurses perceive their roles when caring for the children of seriously ill patients and found that some nurses are convinced that the children are not their responsibility. These findings align with the "It is not my business" position (see Section 3.2.1), whereby health professionals adopt arguments as to why the patients' children are not their responsibility.…”

Section: Primacy Of the Professional-patient Relationshipmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Several studies in Scandinavian countries have shown that the dominant medical logic, time pressures and limited economic resources result in health professionals prioritising patients and medical issues over the patients' relatives and psychosocial issues (Dencker et al, 2017;Karidar et al, 2016). Nurses have reported that they are unqualified or insufficiently trained to support children (Golsäter et al, 2016). In a literature review, Franklin et al (2018) confirmed the findings of several Scandinavian studies reporting that encountering children in close proximity to death in the workplace has emotional and existential effects on health professionals, creating a need for self-distancing and -protection.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Going against patients’ will? A qualitative study of how palliative health-care professionals handle competing considerations when children are excluded from parental illness and death

Hogstad

Leer-Salvesen

2020

European Journal of Oncology Nursing

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The Norwegian Health Personnel Act (HPA §10a) obliges health professionals to contribute to meeting minor children's need for information about their parents' illness and prognosis. Previous research has shown that many parents withhold information about illness and anticipated death from their children. This study explored main considerations for palliative health-care professionals in these situations, and how they negotiate conflicting considerations of confidentiality and child involvement. Method: This qualitative exploratory study involved semi-structured interviews with 11 palliative health-care professionals. Hermeneutics informed the data analysis. Results: The health professionals' main considerations were sustaining patients' hope and building trust in the professional-patient relationship. Both concerns were grounded in respect for patient autonomy. The health professionals negotiated patient autonomy and child involvement in different ways, defined in the present analysis on a continuum ranging from granting full patient autonomy to going directly against patients' will. Conclusions: The professional-patient relationship is the primary consideration in the health care context, and decision making on the degree of children's involvement happens in a dialogical process between health professionals and patients. Close professional-patient relationships might increase the emotional impacts on health professionals, who consequently might give greater relative weight to patients' will. We propose that procedures for initiating collaboration with professionals in the child's everyday life context help health professionals involving the child without threatening trust.

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Are children as relatives our responsibility? – How nurses perceive their role in caring for children as relatives of seriously ill patients

Cited by 36 publications

References 24 publications

Contributing to making the school a safe place for the child: School nurses’ perceptions of their assignment when caring for children having parents with serious physical illness

Contributing to making the school a safe place for the child: School nurses’ perceptions of their assignment when caring for children having parents with serious physical illness

Contextualisation of patient-centred care: A comparative qualitative study of healthcare professionals' approaches to communicating with seriously ill patients about their dependent children

Going against patients’ will? A qualitative study of how palliative health-care professionals handle competing considerations when children are excluded from parental illness and death

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