Expected and received support from the medical personnel in the perception of parents of children treated in hospital

Introduction: In the case of a child’s illness and their hospital stay, a holistic approach to a paediatric patient and their parents/carers is of considerable significance. It encompasses the provision of not only treatment and care of an ill child but also support for their parents. The aim of the work was the evaluation of support provided by nurses and doctors as well as assessment of expected and received support from nurses in the perception of parents whose children were treated in hospital.

Material and method: The study included 120 parents of children treated at the Surgery and Paediatric Traumatology Department as well as I and II Department of Paediatric Orthopaedics, University Children’s Hospital in Lublin. The research instruments applied were as follows the Polish adaptation of the Nurse Parent Support Tool (NPST) by Anna Aftyka et al. and a sociodemographic questionnaire.

Results and conclusions: The parents of children treated in hospital claim that both nurses and doctors provided them with comparable support, namely informational, emotional, appraisal, instrumental and general one. In the perception of the respondents informational, emotional, appraisal, instrumental and general support delivered by nurses is lower than the expected one. The research results obtained deepen the knowledge in the field of health psychology and can be used to compile effective forms of the provision of support for parents of children treated in hospital by the medical personnel.