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Parents’ and Staff’s Perceptions of Parental Needs During a Child’s Admission to Hospital: an English Perspective

University of Limerick, Ireland;University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia Linda.Shields{at}ul.ie

Judith Hunter, MBE, MA, BSc(Hons), RN

Trauma/Orthopaedics and A&E, City Hospitals, Sunderland NHS Trust

Jean Hall, RSCN

University of Northumbria at Newcastle

The aim of this research was to compare perceptions of parental needs held by parents of hospitalized children and the staff caring for them, so that potential communication breakdown could be avoided. A well-trialled tool was used with a convenience sample in paediatric facilities in a National Health Service trust in north-east England. Some differences were found between parents and staff for scores for perceived importance of the 51 needs that were included in the questionnaire, and whether or not they were being satisfactorily met during the child’s hospital admission, but there were no consistent patterns, so it is difficult to draw conclusions. Parents declared themselves more independent than the staff perceived them to be. Such findings facilitate improvements in communication between parents and staff and can be included in education programmes for both.

Key Words: communicaton • health professionals • satisfaction • trust

Journal of Child Health Care, Vol. 8, No. 1, 9-33 (2004)
DOI: 10.1177/1367493504041851


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