G27(P) Promoting family-centred care: assessing parent & healthcare professionals’ views on introducing parental presence on picu ward rounds

Aims Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) is a challenging environment. Being a parent to a child who is critically unwell creates a variety of complex emotions. Often the unwell child is not able to express their needs, and thus healthcare professionals must recognise the invaluable role parents play in this situation.1 Communication between parents and staff is an essential part of the support offered during these difficult times and may reduce parent’s emotional stress.2 Currently, RBHSC PICU does not facilitate parents to be present during morning PICU ward rounds. There are several reasons cited for this, including potential excess length of ward rounds and possible confidentiality implications due to the unique and often sensitive patient circumstances in a critical care environment. This practice is consistent with several other large PICU Centres in the UK and Ireland. We introduced the concept of parents being invited to be present during the daily morning ward round and proposed a multitude of benefits for patients, parents and staff. Methods A questionnaire was designed assessing staff and parent attitudes on parental presence on ward rounds. Parents and legal guardians of patients admitted to PICU for two successive mornings were eligible for participation. Focused questions included exploring themes around communication, empowerment, understanding day plans, and whether respondents felt parents should be invited to remain present during ward rounds. In addition, during a two-week period, we monitored length of time of ward rounds. Results The average length of time for morning ward round was 14 min per patient. 12 Parents responded to questionnaire. 92% were strongly in favour of being invited to stay for ward rounds. 70 PICU staff members responded including 56 Nurses, 9 Doctors, and 5 Allied health professionals. 30% of staff agreed that parents should be invited, 23% were equivocal, and 47% did not agree. Conclusions This survey highlighted the varied staff and parent views on parental presence on PICU ward rounds. We plan to introduce a pilot period of parents being invited to stay present during the ward round and will re-survey to assess impact. These measures are in bid to enhance parental empowerment, improve communication and promote family-centred care in PICU. References . Latour,et al. Parent satisfactions in the paediatric ICU. Paediatric Clin N Am2008;55:779–790. . Kuo DZ, Houtrow AJ, Arango P, Kuhlthau KA, Simmons JM, Neff JM. Family-centred care: Current applications and future directions in paediatric health care. Matern Child Health J2012;2012(16):297–305.