Challenging the philosophy of partnership with parents: a grounded theory study

BACKGROUND: Parent participation is viewed as a pivotal concept to the provision of high quality nursing care for children and their families. Since the 1990's, the term 'partnership with parents' has increasingly been reported in the literature and adopted as a philosophy of care in most paediatric units in the United Kingdom. OBJECTIVES: To explore children's, parents', and nurses' views on participation in care in the healthcare setting. DESIGN: Using grounded theory, data were collected through in-depth interviews, and participant observation. Sample consisted of eleven children, ten parents and twelve nurses from four paediatric wards in two hospitals in England. RESULTS: Most nurses assumed that parents would participate in care and viewed their role as facilitators rather than 'doers'. Nurses reported that the ideology of partnership with parents did not accurately reflect or describe their relationships with parents. Parents could never be partners in care as control of the boundaries of care rested with the nurses. Parents felt compelled to be there and to be responsible for their children's welfare in hospital. CONCLUSIONS: The pendulum of parent participation has swung from excluding parents in the past to making parents feel total responsibility for their child in hospital. It is argued that the current models or theories on parent participation/partnership are inappropriate or inadequate because they do not address important elements of children's, parents' and nurses' experiences in hospital.     

Caring for parents of hospitalized children: a hidden area of nursing work

Children are the recognized patients when admitted to hospital but their parents can also present demands for care by nurses. Involvement in care can be stressful for parents, particularly when children are required to undergo unpleasant procedures. Parents turn to their families for support in the first instance but some also look for care from nurses. Consequently parents can present a need for care of themselves to nurses whose primary patients are children. In this paper the experiences of a group of parents who became co-clients of nurses are considered along with the views of nurses working on the same ward. The discussion arises out of a larger study of the experiences of the parents of children admitted to a surgical ward in a children's hospital. The principal purpose of the study was to examine parents' and nurses' perceptions of their participation in the care of hospitalized children. The work of caring for parents is found to be ad hoc and unpredictable. The implications of the study for practice and policy are considered.     

Poor communication and knowledge deficits: obstacles to effective management of children's postoperative pain

AIM OF THE STUDY: To explore the perceptions of nurses and parents of the management of postoperative pain in children. This paper focuses on issues of knowledge and communication. BACKGROUND: Nurses are the key health care professionals with responsibility for managing children's pain, however, nurses are not well supported educationally to manage the level of responsibility. RESULTS: Using matched interviews between 20 parents and 20 nurses many issues arose relating to the nurse/parent communication process. It was also clear that despite nurses' knowledge of pain management being deficient, they had expectations that required parents to have a level of knowledge they did not possess. CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest that nurses' poor communication with parents and nurses' knowledge deficits in relation to children's pain management create obstacles to effective pain management. These obstacles need to be addressed in order to improve the management of children's pain through better education of nurses and two way communication with parents.     

Nurses' perceptions of parental involvement in hospital care

Parental involvement is an essential element of quality of care for children in hospital. However, there is often confusion in role perception between parents and nurses which may be affected by nurses' attitudes, their ability to provide information, their communication and interpersonal skills and willingness to relinquish control. AIM: This study examined nurses' perceptions of parental involvement and communication with parents of children in hospital and explored differences in perceptions of recent graduate nurses and more experienced nurses. METHOD: Two focus groups were carried out at a university paediatric hospital in Sweden, one with experienced paediatric nurses (n = 7) and one with recent nursing graduates (n = 6). FINDINGS: Analysis of the discussions identified five themes: clarifying roles, information, work environment, support and clinical competence. These nurses confirmed the belief that involving parents in the child's care is an important part of nursing in paediatric care and suggested that the nurses should play the role of being the communicator with the parents. CONCLUSION: Nurses need to be aware of the impact their communication has on parents and help them to clarify their role as parents in hospital.     

Nurses' expectations of using music for premature infants in neonatal intensive care unit

This study aimed to describe nurses' expectations of using music for premature infants in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and to find out about the related background factors. The subjects consisted of 210 Finnish nurses who were recruited from the country's five university hospitals providing premature infant care in NICU. The data were collected by validated questionnaire, and the response rate was 82%. Most nurses preferred recorded music to live music in the NICU. They expected that music would have positive effects on premature infants, parents, and staff. Few demographic and many background factors of the respondents' music-related experiences correlated significantly with the expectations concerning their preference. In conclusion, the nurses' expectations were positive regarding the use of music in the NICU, which supports evidence regarding the efficacy of music therapy for premature infants.     

School-age children with asthma and their parents: relationships with health care providers

Health care providers, including nurses, physicians, and other personnel, are key figures who design and implement plans of care to help families manage childhood asthma, yet families' perceptions of relationships with these professionals has received limited study. Child and parent perspectives about relationships with their health care providers emerged as themes in a study that explored responsibility sharing between school-age children with asthma and their parents (Buford, 2004). Fourteen school-age children with asthma and 14 of their parents from 11 families participated in the study. Parents and, to a lesser extent, children, described aspects of their relationships with their health care providers that were supports or barriers to asthma management. Implications for nurses and other health care providers stem from these data and include the importance for health care providers to educate themselves and their patients about state-of-the-art asthma care. Education should be directed to both parents and their children. In addition, parents need to receive education about how to coach their children because the children depend on them for information and direction. Finally, nurses and other health care providers need to listen to parents and value their input about their children's conditions.     

Developing expertise - the contribution of paediatric accident and emergency nurses to the care of children,and the implications for their continuing professional development

AIM: The purpose of this paper is to explore the contribution of paediatric accident and emergency nurses to the care of children. METHOD: Using a case study approach, the paper focuses on the experiences of three nurses working in this setting, obtained through working alongside the nurses and discussing and observing their experiences. FINDINGS: It became apparent that the nurses were regarded as "experts" in the care of children in this setting. The nurses themselves however, did not share this perception. Their experiences are analysed with reference to literature on expertise, focussing specifically on published accounts of children's nurses' experiences, and research which has explored the concept of expertise within the context of accident and emergency work. The implications for continuing professional development needs are discussed within the context of recent government reports, which make recommendations in respect of access and delivery of on-going professional education. To this end it is advocated that a multi-professional approach is adopted, with children's nurses sharing learning and thus access to, courses customarily provided to adults nurses working in this setting.     

From unit to unit: Danish nurses' experiences of transfer of a small child to and from an intensive care unit.

In this study, Danish nurses' lived experience of transfer of a small child to and from the intensive care unit was explored. While there has been considerable research that has addressed transfer from the parents' perspective, little literature was found which addressed the transfer of small children from the nurses' perspective. A convenience sample of 19 nurses was interviewed once. Data were analysed following Spiegelberg's and Van Manen's phenomenological methodologies. Four themes emerged: being accountable; being supportive to the parents; being with the child; and experiencing safety and insecurity. Seven subthemes expanded and clarified the meaning of these themes. The study provides a thematic interpretation of how Danish nurses experience in-hospital transfers. Overall, the nurses were responsible to the transferred patient, the unhappy and worried parents, for technical procedures and the hospital team 'at home' on their own unit. However, responsibilities did not always include their colleagues on the receiving unit. It is recommended that transfer experiences be discussed more in clinical nursing, and that this explorative study needs to be followed by more studies exploring nurses' experiences of transfer.     

Quality in pediatric nursing care: children's expectations

Children's perceptions of pediatric nursing care have not been systematically taken into account in the development of the quality of care. Usually, parents have evaluated children's care and its quality. The purpose of this study was to examine children's expectations concerning the quality of pediatric nursing care by interviewing 20 preschool and 20 school-aged children in Finland. Twenty of them had insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) and visited the hospital on a regular basis, and 20 were treated on a surgical ward for a short period. Using content analysis, the interviews were coded and categories and subcategories identified. The children's expectations concerning the quality of nursing care were related to the nurse, nursing activities, and environment. They expected the nurses to be humane and reliable, have a good sense of humor, and wear colorful clothes at work. Both the nurses and the parents were expected to take part in nursing activities. The children expected from nurses, in particular, entertainment, educational, caring, and safety activities, while parents were expected to relieve fears and longing and to provide company. The children also emphasized the role of other children as part of good care. The results demonstrate that children are capable of offering valuable insights into the quality of pediatric nursing care. The results open new avenues for strengthening children's perspectives on pediatric nursing.     

Negotiation of care by children's nurses: lessons from research

Parental participation and role negotiation are central elements in family-centred care, but research suggests that such negotiation tends to be ad hoc, depending on the relationships developing between the family and health professionals. Lack of effective communication, professional expectations and issues of power and control often prevent open and mutual negotiation between families and health professionals, especially nurses. This article summarises key lessons from a critical review of relevant research literature (Corlett and Twycross 2006) which suggests that nursing staff often control parental participation leaving parents feeling disempowered and deskilled. Poor communication and lack of information sharing exacerbate the situation. Where parents do not comply with nurses' expectations conflict can arise, resulting in more anxiety for already stressed parents. Current health policy requires that health workers listen to children and their families, to actively involve them in the decision-making process and to plan care around their needs and wishes. Nurses need to be aware of the way they interact with parents and the control they may unwittingly exert. A greater emphasis on communication, interpersonal and negotiation skills within nurse education is also needed.     

Do nurses working in adult psychiatry take into consideration the support network of families affected by parental mental disorder?

The aim of this study was to gain information about registered and practical mental health nurses' activities concerning support network of families affected by parental mental illness. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire distributed to all 608 practical and registered mental health nurses working in adult psychiatric units in five Finnish university hospitals. A total of 311 nurses returned completed questionnaires (response rate 51%). Sixty per cent (n = 222) of registered nurses and 36% (n = 88) of practical mental health nurses responded. Information about family relationships and socio-economic situation was gathered regularly by all nurses. The nurses' individual characteristics, such as being a parent, further family education and use of family-centred care, were significantly related to their activeness in discussing the family's support network with the parents. Discussing family relationships and families support networks forms part of patient care in adult psychiatric nursing with families with dependent children (under 18 years of age). Nurses can work directly with the parents to aid them to strengthen their support network for themselves and their children.     

Nurses' beliefs about family involvement in a children's hospital.

Children's hospitals throughout North America have implemented many changes during the past 15 years. In recognition of the central role of parents in the lives of their children, policies and procedures have been implemented to enable parents to participate in various aspects of their children's care. However, the extent to which attitudes of nurses have changed to support a more active parental role is less evident. In a project to formulate a philosophy of nursing for a children's hospital, 22 nurses were asked a wide range of questions about nursing and family-centered care. Although all nurses expressed explicit support for the concept of family-centered care, some of their practices and beliefs suggested otherwise. This article describes their responses and suggests recommendations for future research, education, and nursing practice.     

Enabling overweight children to improve their food and exercise habits - school nurses' counselling in multilingual settings

Aims and objectives. The study aimed at analysing school nurses' counselling of overweight and obese children in settings with many immigrants, focusing on content concerning food and physical activity and how this was communicated. Background. For people with a predisposition for overweight, the weight control process requires cognitive skills. School nurses' counselling of overweight children has the potential to support this process by enabling personal resources in the children and their families. However, there is uncertainty among nurses about how to conduct supportive counselling. Design. An explorative design was used when collecting and analysing data. Method. Twenty-two counselling sessions between eight school nurses and 20 overweight children were audio-recorded and analysed using qualitative content analysis. Most of the participating schools represented areas with low socioeconomic status and a high proportion of immigrants and refugees. Results. Less adequate skills in enabling resources in the children and their parents were observed. Concurrently, school nurses provided inadequate explanations about food and physical activity. Topics related to general nutrition models were frequently communicated as general advice instead of individually tailored counselling. Counselling families with other languages and food cultures than the traditional Swedish created additional difficulties. Conclusions. Improved nutritional knowledge for nurses may enhance their skills in enabling children's and families' resources. School nurses should be provided with opportunities to cooperate with other professions in counteracting overweight. Relevance to clinical practice. Our findings demonstrate a relationship between content skills and person-centeredness in the counselling. This highlights the importance of inter-professional collaboration to ensure a high quality of lifestyle counselling. School health authorities should give high priority to facilitating school nurses' evidence-based continuing education.