Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

CiteULike is a free service for managing and discovering scholarly references - click here to get started.

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
Nursing Times Research
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Hallström, I.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

Parents’ and children’s involvement in decision-making during hospitalisation

Inger Hallström, PhD, RN, RSCN

Department of Nursing, The Vardalinstitute, Lund University, Sweden

Different reasons are given as to why children and their parents should be involved in discussions and decisions regarding the child’s care. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child formulates the needs of children and young people in terms of human rights. Ethical duties of health professionals include the obligation to enhance their patients’ competence and ability to participate. The concepts of autonomy, integrity, competence, assent and consent are complex and sometimes difficult to relate to practice. However, they are essential in paediatric care. In earlier studies we observed 24 children and 35 parents during the child’s hospitalisation, and situations including a decision-making process were identified.

Analysis included assessing and grading both children’s and parents’ involvement in decisions according to a five-level scale of different degrees of respect. The results emphasised that both children and parents had varying abilities to become involved in the decision-making process. Promoting children’s rights is one of the most important roles for the children’s nurse. Having a voice in decision-making helps the child to develop a sense of him-herself as a person and gives the parents a feeling that they are part of a team giving their child optimal care during hospitalisation.

Nursing Times Research, Vol. 9, No. 4, 263-269 (2004)
DOI: 10.1177/136140960400900404
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?