Background: The study explores how healthcare professionals view participation of children and adolescents with juvenile idiopathic arthritis, in healthcare encounters.
Methods: This qualitative study includes focus groups of HCPs from different professions. The interviews were analysed with qualitative content analysis.
Results: The theme "Creating an enabling arena" illuminates how HCPs face possibilities and challenges when enabling children to communicate and participate in clinical encounters. HCPs, parents, and the healthcare system need to adjust to the child. The sub-theme "Bringing different perspectives" describes how children and their parents cooperate and complement each other during healthcare encounters. The sub-theme "Building a safe and comfortable setting" includes how HCPs address the child's self-identified needs and make the child feel comfortable during encounters. The sub-theme "Facilitating methods in a limiting organisation" includes how HCPs' working methods and organization may help or hinder child participation during encounters.
Conclusions: HCPs encourage children and adolescents to make their views known during healthcare encounters by creating an enabling arena. Collaboration and building good relationships between the child, the parents and the HCPs, before and during the healthcare encounters, can help the child express their wishes and experiences. Clinical examinations and use of technology, such as photos, films and web-bases questionnaires can be a good start for a better child communication in healthcare encounters.IMPLICATIONS FOR REHABILITATIONHealthcare professionals in JIA teams experience that they can facilitate communication and participation with children and adolescents in healthcare encounters.When healthcare professionals enable both children, adolescents and their parents to bring their perspectives, these views complement one another and enrich information during healthcare encounters.Children and adolescents are more empowered to participate, when healthcare professionals create a good relationship with the child and their parents, and strengthen the child's knowledge, confidence and autonomy.
Keywords: Adolescent; child; chronic condition; communication; healthcare professionals; participation; qualitative.