Parents’ experiences of participation in the care of hospitalised children: A qualitative study

doi:10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2005.07.009

International Journal of Nursing Studies

Volume 43, Issue 5, July 2006, Pages 535-545

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2005.07.009 Get rights and content

Abstract

Background

The introduction of unrestricted visiting hours has led to the encouragement of parents to stay with and participate in the care of their hospitalised child. In order to stay with the hospitalised child, parents have to be away from home or work, which in turn impacts on their personal and family life. However, no published study on parents’ experiences of childcare participation during paediatric hospitalisation has been found for a Chinese population.

Objectives

This study explored Chinese parents’ experiences of their participation in taking care of their hospitalised child.

Design

A qualitative exploratory design was adopted to capture parents’ experiences of participation.

Settings

The study was conducted in four paediatric wards of a regional acute general hospital in the New Territories, a major geographical region of Hong Kong.

Participants

Nineteen parents (16 mothers and three fathers) who had a child hospitalised for more than 48 h and identified themselves as staying comparatively longer with the child than their counterpart were recruited.

Methods

Data were collection by tape-recorded semi-structured interview.

Results

Four major categories that illustrated parents’ experiences of participation in childcare were identified: reasons for staying with the child, rescheduling of family's routine, expectations of nurses, and comments on facility provisions. The findings highlight parents’ desire for participation in caring for their hospitalised child, their unexpressed needs for communication and concern about the non-monetary costs of participation.

Conclusions

Most parents viewed accompanying their hospitalised child as an unconditional aspect of being a parent and had a strong desire for participation. Parents’ need for communication and emotional support during their participation of childcare in paediatric unit are universal. As Chinese parents are passive in seeking help, nurses should take the initiative in assessing their needs and offering them support accordingly.

Section snippets

What is already known about the topic?

•
Parents view their participation in caring for their hospitalised child as essential for their child's benefit.
•
Parents’ major concern about participation is lack of information.

What this paper adds

•
Confirmation that Chinese parents also viewed accompanying their hospitalised child as an unconditional aspect of being a parent.
•
Most participants viewed accompanying their hospitalised child as a full-time activity because children needed to be constantly accompanied and this has seldom been reported in Western studies.
•
Four major categories that illustrated parents’ experiences of participation in childcare were identified: reasons for staying with the child, rescheduling of family's routine,

Parents’ perspectives of their participation

Parental involvement and partnership in childcare facilitated by nurses and other health professionals are the key elements in paediatric hospital care (Palmer, 1993; Coyne, 1996). Recognition of the importance of parental participation has raised issues for discussion and increased research on family-centred care in paediatric nursing. Early studies of parent participation have identified the main areas of care that parents were willing and unwilling to perform for their hospitalised child (

Design

In order to explore parents’ experiences in caring for their child hospitalised in a paediatric unit, a qualitative approach was adopted for the study. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews with parents over 2 months. In-depth qualitative interviews enable the researchers to obtain rich description of parents’ experiences of caring for their child during hospitalisation and give parents a high degree of freedom to respond to questions, elaborate ideas and feelings, and illustrate

Description of participants

Nineteen parents participated in the study. Sixteen were mothers and three were fathers. Nine of them were from two general paediatric wards, four from an isolation ward, and six from an oncology ward. Ten mothers were housewives, whereas four had full time employment and two had part time work. Among the employed mothers, two quit their jobs in order to take care of their child with chronic illness. All three fathers had full time employment.

All children were from two-parent families and aged

Discussion

One important finding of this study was that regardless of the child's health condition and the length of the child's hospitalisation, parents viewed paediatric hospitalisation as the most important event of the family. Staying with the hospitalised child was an unconditional aspect of being a parent. Most of the parents in this study laid aside their personal commitment, family roles and even physiologic needs, in order to accompany their hospitalised child for over 20 h per day. The majority

Conclusions

The qualitative approach used in this study and in other similar Western studies (Coyne, 1995; Kristensson-Hallstrom and Elander, 1997; Stubblefield and Murray, 1999) has value in the exploration of parents’ perceptions of their participation in childcare. The findings of this study supported those in Western studies that Chinese parents also had a strong desire for participation in order to provide individualised childcare, ensure adequate child monitoring and meet the child's as well as their

Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the Departmental Research Fund of The Nethersole School of Nursing, and the Student Campus Work Scheme of the United College, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. The authors would like to thank all parents participated in the study.

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View full text

Parents’ experiences of participation in the care of hospitalised children: A qualitative study

Abstract

Background

Objectives

Design

Settings

Participants

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Section snippets

What is already known about the topic?

What this paper adds

Parents’ perspectives of their participation

Design

Description of participants

Discussion

Conclusions

Acknowledgements

Journal of Pediatric Nursing

Journal of Pediatric Nursing

International Journal of Nursing Studies

Journal of Pediatric Nursing

Personality and Individual Differences

Journal of Pediatric Nursing

Journal of Pediatric Nursing

Journal of Pediatric Nursing

The Handbook of Chinese Psychology

Paying to participate: financial, social and personal costs to parents of involvement in their children's care in hospital

Journal of Advanced Nursing

The use of qualitative methods in the study of parents’ experiences of care on a children's surgical ward

Journal of Advanced Nursing

Chinese Religion

Partnership in care: parents’ views of participation in their hospitalized child's care

Journal of Clinical Nursing

Parent participation: a concept analysis

Journal of Advanced Nursing

Living with a Sick Child in Hospital: The Experiences of Parents and Nurses

The mother on the pediatric ward: insider or outlawed?

Pediatric Nursing

Filial piety and its psychological consequences