'We should have been told what would happen': Children's and parents' procedural knowledge levels and information-seeking behaviours when coming to hospital for a planned procedure.
Lucy Bray, Victoria Appleton, Ashley Sharpe
PMID 33745339WHAT IT FOUND
Most children and parents arrived for hospital procedures without enough information, despite wanting to know what would happen.
They expected face-to-face explanation from staff but felt rushed. Pre-procedure signposting and dedicated time to ask questions are needed to close this gap.
Key findings
01The majority of children and parents reported not having enough information about the planned procedure.
02Nearly all children reported not receiving, accessing or seeking information about their procedure before attending hospital.
03Almost all children wanted to know what would happen and intended to ask health professionals, but felt rushed at admission.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
The sample was small (40 children) and drawn from a single hospital trust, limiting generalisability. Participants were recruited from the control arm of a larger interventional study, which may have influenced who agreed to take part. Procedural knowledge was measured using a single-item scale, which may not capture the complexity of understanding. Parents' information-seeking behaviours were not collected, only their perceptions of knowledge.
Declared interests
The study was supported by a grant from Innovate UK awarded to Corporation Pop, the developers of the Xploro application evaluated in the larger parent study. The authors declared no other conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that providing written leaflets is sufficient preparation. The study found that most children did not access these resources, yet still expected and wanted direct verbal explanation from health professionals.