Parents’ and health professionals’ perceptions of family centred care for children in hospital, in developed and developing countries: A review of the literature

Background

In paediatrics family centred care (FCC) is a widely used model of care that is believed to help meet the emotional, psychological and developmental needs of the hospitalized child. However, perceptions of the effectiveness of the operationalization of FCC in terms of meeting family needs are varied.

Objectives

The aim of this review was to explore the attitudes towards and experiences of FCC by healthcare professionals and parents during the hospitalization of a child.

Design

A comprehensive search of the literature was undertaken drawing principally on key electronic databases of the health literature, augmented with reference list searching.

Data sources

: English language publications indexed in CINAHL, EMBASE, The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, AMED, MEDLINE and PsycINFO published from 1997 to 2009.

Review methods

: Two review authors independently undertook the searches and two to three authors independently assessed trial quality, family centeredness, data extraction and thematic synthesis. Fifteen studies were reviewed.

Results

Four themes emerged from the literature on communication, healthcare professional and parent relationships, caring for parents and available resources. The differences, similarities and interpretation between healthcare professionals’ and parents’ perspectives on these themes are reported.

Conclusion

The effectiveness of FCC can often depend on individual demographic characteristics of the child, parent and healthcare professional. A broad spectrum of variability exists in the perceptions of healthcare professionals and parents on parental needs and FCC within a hospital context.