Educational programmes for paediatric healthcare professionals in patient- and family-centred care. A scoping review.

To identify and describe educational programmes in patient- and family-centred care for paediatric healthcare professionals. This scoping review was conducted and reported according to the JBI Manual for Evidence Synthesis and the PRISMA guideline. The databases searched included MEDLINE (PubMed), PsycINFO, CINAHL, Scopus, Cochrane, and Embase. Inclusion criteria were experimental, observational and qualitative studies about educational programmes on patient- and family-centred care for paediatric healthcare professionals. Exclusion criteria were reviews and non-peer-reviewed literature. Two reviewers independently screened and extracted the data using Covidence. Of the 13922 records identified, 49 articles met the inclusion criteria. There was a large variety of educational programmes, half of which were interdisciplinary, that mainly targeted nurses and doctors. The median number of participants was 51 (range 7 to 1411). The predominant target population was children with chronic disabilities and neonatal intensive care units, and only one programme specifically targeted adolescents. The median duration was one day (range 5 min to 3.5 years). Development of competencies was the most common objective. We identified 12 different educational content areas. Content mainly focused on communication and relational competencies, including partnership, which involved shared decision-making, mutual agenda setting, and negotiation of a plan. Many kinds of educational strategies were found but experiential learning through simulation and roleplay was used most.   Conclusion: A large variety of educational programmes in paediatric patient- and family-centred care exist. Educational content mainly focused on communication and relational competencies. Experiential learning including roleplay and simulation was the most used educational strategy. What is Known: • Delivery of patient- and family-centred care improves parental satisfaction of care but requires clinicians have a certain attitude towards involving the child and parents in a healthcare partnership as well as advanced triadic communication skills. Little is known about how this attitude, and more broadly, patient- and family-centred care, can be facilitated through education and training. What is New: • This scoping review found a wide array of programmes.. Workshops with simulation or roleplay was the most frequent educational strategy. The programmes, which typically targeted nurses and doctors, chiefly focused on basic and advanced communication and relational competencies, including partnership, which involved shared decision-making and negotiation of plans.

Attitude of Indian nurses towards importance of families in nursing care: A cross-sectional study.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the attitudes of Indian nurses towards the importance of family involvement in nursing care and the association between nurse attitudes and sociodemographic characteristics. BACKGROUND: Involving the family in the care process is crucial for delivering family- and patient-centred care and ensuring the best possible patient outcomes. Nevertheless, published literature revealed that the nurses may lack clarity regarding the role of family members in the patient's care, which in turn hinders families' participation in care. DESIGN: Cross-sectional descriptive study. The STROBE checklist was used to report the present study. METHODS: A total of 203 Nurses participated in a prospective cross-sectional study between May 2022 and August 2022. They were recruited through convenience sampling from two tertiary care centres in India. A two-part questionnaire was used to gather the data; the first section contained questions for gathering sociodemographic information, and the second part contained the standardized FINC-NA scale. RESULTS: The mean age of the nurses was (28.08 ± 4.722) years, and their median professional experience was 2.5 (1-5.5) years. Nurses' attitude regarding family's importance in patient care was found to be significantly associated (p ≤ .05) with education level, marital status, religion and hometown region. CONCLUSION: In several items Indian nurses have positive attitudes towards family involvement in care but some of the lower scoring items can present opportunities for focused improvement. Continuing development programmes about family-centered care can constitute important strategies to improve the positive attitudes of nurses towards families in practice. PATIENT AND PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION: No patient or public contribution.

Interventions to improve nurse-family communication in the emergency department: A scoping review.

AIM: To determine and describe what interventions exist to improve nurse-family communication during the waiting period of an emergency department visit. BACKGROUND: Communication between nurses and families is an area needing improvement. Good communication can improve patient outcomes, satisfaction with care and decrease patient and family anxiety. DESIGN: Scoping Review. METHODS: A scoping review was conducted following the Joanna Briggs Institution methodology: (1) identify the research question, (2) define the inclusion criteria, (3) use a search strategy to identify relevant studies using a three-step approach, (4) select studies using a team approach, (5) data extraction, (6) data analysis, and (7) presentation of results. DATA SOURCES: Medline, CINAHL, EMBASE, PsychInfo and grey literature were searched on 3 August 2022. RESULTS: The search yielded 1771 articles from the databases, of which 20 were included. An additional seven articles were included from the grey literature. Paediatric and adult interventions were found targeting staff and family of which the general recommendations were summarised into communication models. CONCLUSION: Future research should focus on evaluating the effectiveness of interventions using a standardised scale, understanding the specific needs of families, and exploring the communication models developed in this review. IMPLICATIONS FOR CLINICAL PRACTICE: Communication models for triage nurses and all emergency department nurses were developed. These may guide nurses to improve their communication which will contribute to improving family satisfaction. REPORTING METHOD: PRISMA-ScR. TRIAL AND PROTOCOL REGISTRATION: Protocol has been registered with the Open Science Framework, registration number 10.17605/OSF.IO/ETSYB. PATIENT OR PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION: No patient or public contribution.

Nurses' views on the presence of family members during invasive procedures in hospitalised children: A questionnaire survey.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: (I) To identify the opinion and practices of nursing professionals regarding the presence of family members during invasive procedures in hospitalised children; (II) to determine the knowledge of nursing professionals about the patient-and family-centred care model. BACKGROUND: Family presence in invasive procedures benefits the patient and their relatives, but varied attitudes exist among healthcare personnel, with some being favourable and others unfavourable toward family presence. DESIGN: Observational, descriptive, cross-sectional study. METHODS: Study population: Nurses from paediatric critical care services, emergency services, hospital wards, day hospitals and outpatient clinics at a Catalan tertiary hospital who participated voluntarily between September 2021 and July 2022. Data collection instrument: A questionnaire prepared by the researchers, based on the literature and reviewed by experts. REDCap link with access to the questionnaire was sent out to potential respondents through the institutional email. Bivariate analysis was performed with the R 4.2 program. The study was approved by the hospital's Clinical Research Committee and participants gave informed consent before responding to the questionnaire. RESULTS: A total of 172 nurses participated, and 155 valid responses were obtained. All respondents consider the family as a key element in paediatric care and report inviting family members to participate in the care given to their child. However, 12.0% of nurses do not invite the family to be present in invasive procedures. Almost all respondents note the need for training to acquire communication skills and improve the management of emotions. CONCLUSIONS: The results show a favourable opinion towards the presence of family members and highlight the need to train nurses to develop communication skills. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: The data provided can favour the design of measures to improve and promote the presence of parents during invasive procedures, reinforcing the patient-and family-centred care model and improving the quality of care provided. One example is the creation of family care protocols where the inclusion of parents and the roles of each individual involved in the care process appears.

Relative's suggestions for improvements in support from health professionals before and after a patient's death in general palliative care at home: A qualitative register study.

INTRODUCTION: The efforts of relatives in providing palliative care (PC) at home are important. Relatives take great responsibility, face many challenges and are at increased risk of poor physical and mental health. Support for these relatives is important, but they often do not receive the support they need. When PC is provided at home, the support for relatives before and after a patient's death must be improved. This study aimed to describe relatives' suggestions to improve the support from health professionals (HPs) before and after a patient's death in general PC at home. METHODS: This study had a qualitative descriptive design based on the data from open-ended questions in a survey collected from the Swedish Register of Palliative Care. The respondents were adult relatives involved in general PC at home across Sweden. The textual data were analysed using thematic analysis. RESULTS: The analysis identified four themes: (1) seeking increased access to HPs, (2) needing enhanced information, (3) desiring improved communication and (4) requesting individual support. CONCLUSIONS: It is important to understand and address how the support to relatives may be improved to reduce the unmet needs of relatives. The findings of this study offer some concrete suggestions for improvement on ways to support relatives. Further research should focus on tailored support interventions so that HPs can provide optimal support for relatives before and after a patient's death when PC is provided at home.

Communicating with families of young people with hard-to-treat cancers: Healthcare professionals' perspectives on challenges, skills, and training.

OBJECTIVES: Hard-to-treat childhood cancers are those where standard treatment options do not exist and the prognosis is poor. Healthcare professionals (HCPs) are responsible for communicating with families about prognosis and complex experimental treatments. We aimed to identify HCPs' key challenges and skills required when communicating with families about hard-to-treat cancers and their perceptions of communication-related training. METHODS: We interviewed Australian HCPs who had direct responsibilities in managing children/adolescents with hard-to-treat cancer within the past 24 months. Interviews were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. RESULTS: We interviewed 10 oncologists, 7 nurses, and 3 social workers. HCPs identified several challenges for communication with families including: balancing information provision while maintaining realistic hope; managing their own uncertainty; and nurses and social workers being underutilized during conversations with families, despite widespread preferences for multidisciplinary teamwork. HCPs perceived that making themselves available to families, empowering them to ask questions, and repeating information helped to establish and maintain trusting relationships with families. Half the HCPs reported receiving no formal training for communicating prognosis and treatment options with families of children with hard-to-treat cancers. Nurses, social workers, and less experienced oncologists supported the development of communication training resources, more so than more experienced oncologists. SIGNIFICANCE OF RESULTS: Resources are needed which support HCPs to communicate with families of children with hard-to-treat cancers. Such resources may be particularly beneficial for junior oncologists and other HCPs during their training, and they should aim to prepare them for common challenges and foster greater multidisciplinary collaboration.

Supporting healthcare professionals to address child weight with parents: a qualitative study.

BACKGROUND: Primary care and community healthcare professionals (HCPs) are well placed to discuss child excess weight with parents and support them to make changes. However, HCPs have concerns about addressing this issue. There is a need to understand the factors that influence HCPs in initiating these conversations to inform strategies to support them. AIM: To explore with HCPs, working in primary care and community settings, their experiences of having conversations about child weight with parents, and the factors that create barriers or facilitate them to have these conversations. DESIGN AND SETTING: A qualitative study with GPs, primary care nurses (PNs), and school nurses (SNs) in England. METHOD: GPs and PNs were recruited to participate in semi-structured interviews. SNs from a community healthcare NHS trust were recruited to participate in focus groups. Vignettes were used to stimulate discussion. Data were analysed guided by the Framework approach. RESULTS: Thirteen GPs, seven PNs, and 20 SNs participated. The following three themes were identified regarding barriers to HCPs having conversations about child excess weight: structural and organisational; HCP related; and parent or family related. The themes identified for the factors that facilitate these conversations were: structural changes (for example, dedicated appointments, access to weight assessment data, joined-up working across agencies); HCP approaches (for example, providing appropriate dietary and physical activity advice); and HCP knowledge and skills (for example, enhancing HCPs' general and weight management-related skills and knowledge of child weight management services). CONCLUSION: A range of barriers exist to HCPs addressing child excess weight with parents in primary care and community settings. Actions to effect structural changes and support HCPs in developing relevant knowledge and skills are required to overcome these barriers.

"Let Us Take Care of the Medicine": A Qualitative Analysis of Physician Communication When Caring for Febrile Infants.

BACKGROUND: Guidelines for the management of febrile infants emphasize patient-centered communication. Although patient-centeredness is central to high-quality health care, biases may impact physicians' patient-centeredness. We aimed to 1) identify physicians' assumptions that inform their communication with parents of febrile infants and 2) examine physicians' perceptions of bias. METHODS: We recruited physicians from 3 academic pediatric emergency departments (EDs) for semistructured interviews. We applied a constant comparative method approach to conduct a thematic analysis of interview transcripts. Two coders followed several analytical steps: 1) discovery of concepts and code assignment, 2) identification of themes by grouping concepts, 3) axial coding to identify thematic properties, and 4) identifying exemplar excerpts for rich description. Thematic saturation was based on repetition, recurrence, and forcefulness. RESULTS: Fourteen physicians participated. Participants described making assumptions regarding 3 areas: 1) the parent's affect, 2) the parent's social capacity, and 3) the physician's own role in the parent-physician interaction. Thematic properties highlighted the importance of the physician's assumptions in guiding communication and decision-making. Participants acknowledged an awareness of bias and specifically noted that language bias influenced the assumptions that informed their communication. CONCLUSIONS: ED physicians described subjective assumptions about parents that informed their approach to communication when caring for febrile infants. Given the emphasis on patient-centered communication in febrile infant guidelines, future efforts are necessary to understand how assumptions are influenced by biases, the effect of such behaviors on health inequities, and how to combat this.

Views of healthcare professionals on their relationships with families of people living with dementia: A qualitative study.

OBJECTIVE: Healthcare professionals as well as families play a vital role in ensuring the quality of care for people living with dementia. However, the relationships between healthcare professionals and families of people living with dementia are not extensively examined, particularly within the Chinese cultural context of dementia. The goal of this study was to explore the views of healthcare professionals on their relationships with families of people living with dementia. DESIGN: This qualitative study was grounded in the interpretative phenomenological analysis framework. METHODS: Data were collected using focus-group interviews. Qualitative data were transcribed verbatim and analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. RESULTS: The study recruited a total of 26 healthcare professionals from 3 long-term care facilities. The study found that conflicts were inherent in the relationships between professionals and families of people living with dementia, and conflicts were found to manifest in three core domains: 1) Families demonstrated a lack of understanding about dementia, 2) Professionals faced challenges in managing families' unrealistic expectations regarding the disease status and the prognosis of people living with dementia, 3) Families did not perceive themselves as being responsible for the care of people living with dementia. CONCLUSIONS: The present study found that the prevailing factor underpinning the relational conflicts between healthcare professionals and families of people living with dementia, as reported by healthcare professionals was the perceived lack of understanding about dementia amongst families of those affected.

A randomised controlled trial of a nurse facilitator to promote communication for family members of critically ill patients.

PURPOSE: Suboptimal communication with clinicians, fragmented care and failure to align with patients' preferences are determinants of post intensive care unit (ICU) burden in family members. Our aim was to evaluate the impact of a nurse facilitator on family psychological burden. METHODS: We carried out a randomised controlled trial in five ICUs in France comparing standard communication by ICU clinicians to additional communication and support by nurse facilitators. We included patients > 18 years, with expected ICU length of stay > 2 days, chronic life-limiting illness, and their family members. Facilitators were trained to help families to secure care in line with patient's goals, beginning in ICU and continuing for 3 months. Assessments were made at baseline and 1, 3 and 6 months post-randomisation. Primary outcome was the evolution of family symptoms of depression over 6 months using a linear mixed effects model on the depression subscale of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). Secondary outcomes included HADS-Anxiety, Impact of Event Scale-6, goal-concordant care and experience of serious illness (QUAL-E). RESULTS: 385 patients and family members were enrolled. Follow-up at 1-, 3- and 6-month was completed by 284 (74%), 264 (68.6%) and 260 (67.5%) family members respectively. The intervention was associated with significantly more formal meetings between the ICU team and the family (1 [1-3] vs 2 [1-4]; p < 0.001). There was no significant difference between the intervention and control groups in evolution of symptoms of depression over 6 months (p = 0.91), nor in symptoms of depression at 6 months [0.53 95% CI (- 0.48; 1.55)]. There were no significant differences in secondary outcomes. CONCLUSION: This study does not support the use of facilitators for family members of ICU patients.