The needs of parents of hospitalized children in Australia

Abstract

The aim of this study was to compare the perceptions of needs held by parents of hospitalized children with those held by the staff caring for them. Family-centred care is a central tenet of paediatrics and should encompass all aspects of the child and family's experience of hospitalization. Important to this are the needs of parents when their children are hospitalized. A widely used and validated tool was used with a convenience sample in paediatric facilities in a children's hospital in Australia. Some differences were found between parents and staff for scores for perceived importance of the 51 needs included in the questionnaire, and whether or not they were being met satisfactorily during children's hospital admission, although there were no consistent patterns. Parents declared themselves more independent than the staff perceived them to be. These findings facilitate improvements in communication between parents and staff and can be included in education programmes for both.