Working with families in an emergency department: perceptions of working with children and their parents

Abstract

Rationale and aim: Family-centred care is widely used as a model of care in children’s health services. This paper is part of a series of studies using a validated questionnaire to test health professionals’ perceptions of working with children and with their parents.Method: The questionnaire has two questions and employs a scoring system of semantic differentials. Other questions examined demographic characteristics. The scores were compared and tested against demographic characteristics. Participants (n=126) were nurses, doctors and allied health professionals who worked with children in the emergency department of a tertiary referral regional hospital in northern Australia. We used Wilcoxon signed rank test and median to compare the scores and ANOVA to test mean differences of demographics.Results: Scores for working with children (3.81) were more positive than working with parents (3.29), (p<0.001). Scores were influenced by education level (p=0.05), gender (p=0.05), marital status (p=0.04), having one’s own children (p=0.02) and by length of time working with children (p=0.05).Conclusions: Health professionals working with children in a large, regional hospital’s emergency department held more postitive perceptions about working with children than working with their parents. This is consistent with other studies using the same tool in a variety of settings and countries and indicates that family-centred care is not being fully implemented.

Family-centred practices of healthcare professionals in three emergency departments in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

“…Although a mean score of 1.5 per PI in the study could be regarded as satisfactory, it indicates that family-centred practices are not consistently adhered to and do not feature in every family interaction. This is similar to a finding by Shields et al [26] in an Australian study.…”

“…Similarly, an Australian study revealed that perceptions among ED staff regarding collaborating with families were influenced by education levels, gender and prior experience (p=0.05), marital status (p=0.04) and having children (p=0.02). [26] In their Irish study, Coyne et al [3] concluded that nurses with a degree qualification scored better with regard to their perception of FCC than nurses with a certificate qualification. The contrasting findings of the current study are perplexing, and further qualitative inquiry is recommended.…”

“…However, it has been suggested that specialist education should not include only what FCC entails, but also how to make it work. [26,31,33] Skills training on collaboration with families is also advocated.…”