Parents’ and healthcare professionals’ experiences and perceptions of parental readiness for resuscitation in Iranian paediatric hospitals: a qualitative study

• Published in: BMJ open 2022-05, Vol.12 (5), p.e055599-e055599
• Main Authors: Ghavi, Arezoo, Hassankhani, Hadi, Powers, Kelly, Arshadi-Bostanabad, Mohammad, Namdar Areshtanab, Hossein, Heidarzadeh, Mohammad
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Anxiety; Cardiopulmonary resuscitation; Child; Children & youth; Codes; COVID-19; CPR; Critical care; Cultural differences; Delivery of Health Care; Education; Emergency medical care; Families & family life; health informatics; Hospitals, Pediatric; Humans; Illnesses; Intensive care; Interviews; Iran; Nurses; paediatric intensive & critical care; Paediatrics; Parents & parenting; Parents - psychology; Participation; Pediatrics; Physicians; Professional-Family Relations; Qualitative Research; Stress
• ISSN: 2044-6055; 2044-6055
• DOI: 10.1136/bmjopen-2021-055599

ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to examine parents’ and healthcare professionals’ experiences and perceptions of parental readiness for resuscitation of their child in a paediatric hospital.DesignThis exploratory descriptive qualitative study used content analysis. Participants shared their experiences and perceptions about parental readiness for cardiopulmonary resuscitation through semi-structured and in-depth interviews. MAXQDA 2020 software was also used for data analysis.SettingThe setting was two large teaching paediatric hospitals in Iran (Este Azerbaijan and Mashhad).ParticipantsParticipants were 10 parents and 13 paediatric healthcare professionals (8 nurses and 5 physicians). Selection criteria were: (a) parents who experienced their child’s resuscitation crisis at least 3 months prior and (b) nurses and physicians who were working in emergency rooms or intensive care wards with at least 2 years of experience on the resuscitation team.ResultsParticipants shared their experiences about parental readiness for resuscitation of their child in four categories: awareness (acceptance of resuscitation and its consequences; providing information about the child’s current condition and prognosis), chaos in providing information (defect of responsibility in informing; provide selective protection of information; hardness in obtaining information), providing situational information (honest information on the border of hope and hopeless; providing information with apathy; providing information as individual; dualism in blaming; assurance to parents; presence of parents to better understand the child’s situation) and psychological and spiritual requirements (reliance on supernatural power; need for access to a psychologist; sharing emotions; collecting mementos).ConclusionThe results of this study provide insight on the needs of parents and strategies to use to prepare them for their child’s resuscitation crisis, which can be used to enhance family centred care practices in paediatric acute care settings.