Aim: To identify the contextual factors influencing parents' assessments of the family-centredness of care received during a paediatric emergency department visit.
Design: A qualitative cross-sectional case study.
Methods: We interviewed parents who were at their child's bedside during an emergency department encounter. We independently coded the first 3 transcripts and met to discuss the coding structure and to refine existing codes, add new codes and develop tentative categories. We repeated this process for every 3-5 transcripts until thematic saturation was reached.
Results: We conducted 16 interviews and identified 2 themes: (1) Not all parents expected physicians to provide family-centred care in the emergency department and (2) feeling overwhelmed and powerless influenced parents' perceptions of family-centred care. Poor family-centred care worsened parents' sense of powerlessness and reinforced parents' low expectations from physicians. Similarly, low expectations and powerlessness exacerbated poor family-centred care. Interventions are needed to break this cycle and improve family-centredness of care.
Keywords: emergency department; paediatrics; parent assessment; patient-centred care; qualitative research.
© 2022 The Authors. Nursing Open published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.