Caring for children with acute, treatable and preventable medical conditions

Abstract

Parents perceive quality paediatric nursing care and interpersonal interactions between nurses, children and their parents/ guardians as caring. This article explores the nature and extent of nurse–parent/guardian interaction in the care of children while in the ward. Parents/guardians of hospitalized children participated in the study and were selected through systematic random sampling using the admission registers, while the nurses were purposely selected. Data was analysed by use of the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS). The relationships were determined by use of chi-square test and Fishers exact test at 0.05 level of significance. A majority (74.4%, n=58) of the nurses acknowledged that they involved parents/guardians. The mode of involvement entailed the nurses instructing the parents/ guardians on what they should do but not planning with them. The study recommended that standards of paediatric nursing care be developed and the nurses working in the paediatric wards be trained in paediatric nursing.