Parental decision-making for non-urgent emergency department presentations in Victoria, Australia.
Joy Marbella, Daniel Terry, Blake Peck
PMID 40445066WHAT IT FOUND
Parents who took a child to an emergency department for a non-urgent problem said anxiety and lack of timely primary care made the ED feel like the only place.
They wanted quick reassurance and answers, not always a better doctor.
Key findings
01Parental anxiety, driven by clinical signs, past experiences, and ineffective home interventions, prompted ED attendance.
02Parents chose the ED because it was seen as the only place that could provide immediate answers, treatment and relief.
03Perceived GP delay or referral to ED made families bypass primary care, even when a GP could manage the condition.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
Only eight parents were interviewed, and they were recruited through personal and professional networks, so the themes may not apply to other families. Five parents had a healthcare background, and participants were similar in some ways, which may limit transferability. Parents recalled events that happened before the COVID-19 pandemic, so details may be incomplete or biased by memory. The study described experiences and did not test whether a service change, education, or nurse practitioner services reduced emergency department use.
Declared interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest and received no financial support for the research, authorship, or publication.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as evidence that health education or nurse practitioner services will reduce non-urgent paediatric emergency department visits. The study only described what eight parents said about their past experiences, and it did not test an intervention or measure presentation rates.