Nurses' Experiences of the Quality of Family-Centered Patient Counselling in Paediatric Delirium: A Qualitative Descriptive Study.
Riitta Alanko, Miia Jansson, Tiina Saarenpää and 5 others
PMID 40296412WHAT IT FOUND
Nurses described family counselling for paediatric delirium as needing staged plain-language information, written and digital materials, quiet spaces, early rehabilitation involvement, and better delirium training.
They reported jargon, multi-patient rooms, and inconsistent screening as barriers.
Key findings
01Four main areas for more family-centred counselling emerged: sufficiency, resources, implementation, and healthcare professional-related background factors.
02Nurses said written materials and digital care pathways could help families revisit delirium information after verbal counselling.
03Nurses reported inconsistent use of the Cornell Assessment of Paediatric Delirium bedside screening tool and no consistent clinical pathway for screening and treatment.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
The study was done in one PICU, so its findings may not fit other units. Only 10 of 45 available nurses took part, so the views may not represent all nurses. The interviews did not include patients or families, so the paper reports nurses' views, not family experiences. Transcripts were not returned to participants for checking, though direct quotes were used. The study was qualitative, so it cannot show that any counselling change reduced paediatric delirium or improved family outcomes.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the nurses' suggestions as evidence that written materials, digital pathways, or family-centred counselling reduce paediatric delirium or improve family outcomes. The study interviewed 10 nurses about their experiences; it did not test any intervention or measure patient outcomes.