Parent perceptions of the impact of the Paediatric Intensive Care environment on delivery of family-centred care.
Carrie Hill, Kathleen A Knafl, Sharron Docherty and 1 others
PMID 30061085WHAT IT FOUND
Parents of PICU infants described nurses and unit policies as deciding how much care they could give.
Clear explanations helped. Vague prognoses, exclusion from rounds, and rotating nurses were described as reducing trust and family-centred care.
Key findings
01Parents valued regular, in-depth information exchanges in understandable language, and nurses used dolls and booklets to prepare them for tracheostomy and feeding tube care.
02Parents said nurses and unit policies controlled how much they could participate in basic care and bedside rounds.
03Parents described inconsistent nurses with little PICU experience as disturbing, and one family requested a core group of nurses.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
This was a secondary analysis, so the interviewers did not control the questions and could not probe further on some family-centred care topics. The sample was a small purposive group from a single PICU in a single institution, so the unit culture and policies may not match other units. The primary study investigators helped select the cases, which raises the possibility of selection bias. The analysed infants all had complex congenital heart anomalies, so the findings may not apply to other PICU diagnoses. The study reports parents' perceptions and did not test whether any communication or staffing change improves care.
Declared interests
No separate funding or conflict-of-interest statement is given. The primary study was led by the third author, while the first, second, and fourth authors were not involved in it.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as proof that consistent nurse assignments improve clinical outcomes. The study reports parents' perceptions from a small purposive sample in a single PICU and did not test staffing changes or measure infant outcomes.