Developing parent expertise: A framework to guide parental care following diagnosis of Type 1 diabetes in a young child

Abstract

Objectives

This article examines how health professionals guide parental acquisition of knowledge and development of expertise following diagnosis of Type 1 diabetes in a young child.

Methods

Fifty-five consultations from two outpatient paediatric diabetes clinics, one in the UK and one in the US, were audio recorded, transcribed and analysed; eight exemplar extracts are presented here. Participants were parents, whose child younger than 6 years of age had been diagnosed with diabetes within the previous 14 months, and health professionals, who were experienced doctors, nurses, dieticians and social workers.

Results

Over the first year following diagnosis, experienced health professionals use four strategies to enable parental self-management of their child's diabetes. Clinicians begin by setting expectations to define the shared responsibilities for the management of the child's disease. Next, they introduce two concepts, trial and error, to help parents respond to variations in blood glucose values and pattern recognition, to help parents refine therapy. As parents gain confidence, clinicians encourage independent pro-active management. Together, these four strategies form a framework to enable development of parental expertise.

Conclusions

This framework addresses the needs of parents and guides their socialization as they assume the role of an expert health care provider for their child. If incorporated into clinical guidelines and health professional training programmes, the framework could facilitate improved self-management of diabetes and perhaps of other chronic diseases.