Understanding nurses’ and parents’ perceptions of family-centred care
Intended for healthcare professionals
Art & Science Previous     Next

Understanding nurses’ and parents’ perceptions of family-centred care

Megan Stuart Staff nurse, Great Ormond Street Hospital, London
Sally Melling Associate professor, school of health sciences, University of Nottingham

Megan Stuart and Sally Melling describe the findings of a study exploring how professionals and families view their roles in the care of a child in hospital

Aim To explore and compare differences between parents’ and nurses’ perceptions of family-centred care (FCC) for children’s acute short-stay admissions.

Methods Mixed-method questionnaires were designed to compare care task delegation between nurse and parent participants in the study.

Findings Parents and nurses had similar perceptions of task allocation in FCC. Parents generally were prepared to undertake basic care tasks only, rather than help with nursing interventions. Nurses had a comprehensive understanding of FCC. Most parents were not able to define FCC but carried it out naturally.

Conclusion In the UK, nurses and parents have similar expectations of FCC. It is unusual for parents to be given information or opportunities to engage in the care of the child beyond everyday tasks. The investigation highlighted the importance of negotiating with family members on each separate admission because, although most parents would be comfortable undertaking care tasks, each family and each situation is different.

Nursing Children and Young People. 26, 7, 16-21. doi: 10.7748/ncyp.26.7.16.e479

Correspondence

megan.stuart@gosh.nhs.uk

Peer review

This article has been subjected to open peer review and checked using antiplagiarism software

Conflict of interest

None declared

Received: 06 November 2013

Accepted: 02 April 2014

Want to read more?

RCNi-Plus
Already have access? Log in

or

3-month trial offer for £5.25/month

Subscribe today and save 50% on your first three months
RCNi Plus users have full access to the following benefits:
  • Unlimited access to all 10 RCNi Journals
  • RCNi Learning featuring over 175 modules to easily earn CPD time
  • NMC-compliant RCNi Revalidation Portfolio to stay on track with your progress
  • Personalised newsletters tailored to your interests
  • A customisable dashboard with over 200 topics
Subscribe

Alternatively, you can purchase access to this article for the next seven days. Buy now


Are you a student? Our student subscription has content especially for you.
Find out more