Mothers’ Experiences of Their Child’s Recovery in Hospital and at Home: a Qualitative Investigation

Abstract

Decreasing hospital stays, increasing day surgery and the assumption that parents will manage their child at home necessitate research into children’s recovery. Given the scarcitof studies seeking parents’ perspectives, this exploratory and interpretive study is timely, presenting a detailed account of mothers’ experiences of managing their child’s recovery in hospital and at home. The study supports the view that recovery begins not with discharge, but with admission and before, as hospital experiences directly shape the recovery process. Mothers’ experiences of hospital’s recovery enablers and inhibitors suggest that good recovery practices and policies remain erratic. Following discharge, parents help the child ‘back to normal’ by ‘reading the recovering child’ and balancing the child’s desire for activity with the need for caution and safety. Developing a deeper understanding of parents’ recovery experiences and perceptions would help nurses to form an empathic ‘grounding’ upon which to base improvements in children’s recovery care.