Parent Education in a Children's Hospital

Abstract

The effects of a didactic lecture and discussion about their hospitalized child's illness upon parents' knowledge of that illness are evaluated. Parents attending such lectures achieved significantly greater success than those parents of a non-attending group in their ability to recognize true facts about rheumatic fever and in their ability to avoid subscription to contradictory statements.Significant changes in knowledge which also occurred in the non-attending group attest to the value of multiple channels of communication within the hospital as aids in parent education. Failure to keep subsequent follow-up appointments tended to be associated with failure to learn about the child's illness during the course of this study.