Shared Decision-Making in Pediatric Intensive Care Units: A Qualitative Study with Physicians, Nurses and Parents

Objectives To understand how decisions are made in Intensive Care Unit (ICU) settings where critically-ill children require life-support decisions and what are the perceptions of health professionals and parents. Methods In this qualitative study, in-depth, semi-structured, face to face interviews w...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Indian journal of pediatrics 2014-12, Vol.81 (12), p.1287-1292
Main Authors: Kahveci, Rabia, Ayhan, Duygu, Döner, Pınar, Cihan, Fatma Gökşin, Koç, Esra Meltem
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biological and medical sciences
Child, Preschool
Critical Care - methods
Critical Illness - therapy
Decision Making
Female
General aspects
Gynecology
Humans
Infant
Intensive Care Units, Pediatric
Male
Medical sciences
Medicine
Medicine & Public Health
Nurses - psychology
Original Article
Parents - psychology
Pediatrics
Physicians - psychology
Qualitative Research
Turkey
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Summary:Objectives To understand how decisions are made in Intensive Care Unit (ICU) settings where critically-ill children require life-support decisions and what are the perceptions of health professionals and parents. Methods In this qualitative study, in-depth, semi-structured, face to face interviews with 8 doctors, 9 nurses and 6 parents of critically ill children were conducted. Interviews were digitally recorded and transcribed. The transcriptions were further analyzed following open coding and formation of themes. Results The themes were discussed in two major titles: perceived roles and emotions during the decision-making process. All nurses and patients agreed that the decision maker should be the physician. Nurses understood patients’ emotions better and had a closer relation with the parents. Both doctors and nurses thought that parents could not have all responsibilities about treatment choices, because they do not have the required knowledge. Similarly parents were afraid to make a wrong decision, thus they wanted to leave this to the doctors. Conclusions The present study revealed that shared-decision making is not well understood by health care professionals in Turkey. Doctor is the major decision-making authority and this is also accepted and preferred by the patients and nurses.
ISSN:0019-5456
0973-7693
DOI:10.1007/s12098-014-1431-6