Parental perception regarding communication on care given by health care personnel in paediatric unit

Background of the study: The admission of an infant to the paediatric unit inevitably causes emotional stress for the parents and hence complicates parenting. Parents are partly influenced by hospitalization experience and by their own personal characteristics, past experiences and their relationship to the child. Parents relate their fears and anxieties to their children verbally or nonverbally. They need assurance that their child is receiving adequate medical treatment. They need information, to allow them to understand the child's medical status and treatment the child receives. Communication between parents and health care personnel is an essential part of the support offered to the parents and can reduce their emotional stress, effective communication is paramount between parents of sick neonates and the direct care providers. Parents need to participate in decision making regarding their child’s wellbeing. They value open and honest communication. Effective communication is recognized as a priority in the entire health care continuum especially in the paediatric units, since it directly affects the quality of child care, safety, outcome, parental perception and satisfaction. Methods: This study has assessed the perception of the parents whose child has been admitted in the paediatric units using semi-structured interview schedule Research approach- exploratory, Research design- descriptive, Sample-Primary care givers of the child admitted in the Pediatric unit, Sample technique- convenience sampling, Sample size-100, Tool semi-structured questionnaire to assess the perception. Results: The researcher has identified that majority (97%) of the parents had positive perception on communication on care given by health care personnel, whereas only 3% had partially positive perception and none of the parents had negative perception. Conclusion: The study reveals that there is no statistical association among the other variables, but the variables such as age of the child, occupation, type of family, birth order of the child, number of previous admission has an impact on the levels of perception because hospitalization is a stressor and the caregivers are from different backgrounds and with varied expectations. As health care personnel communication has a lasting impact during the child’s hospitalization. Thus barriers identified (Language used by the health care personnel, poor orientation and poor pre planned discharge) among doctors and nurses should be rectified to ease the stress of parents and thereby improve the quality of care.