THE PRACTICES OF FAMILY-CENTERED CARE FOR HOSPITALIZED CHILDREN: COMPARISON OF IRANIAN MOTHERS AND NURSES' PERCEPTIONS

BACKGROUND: Family-centred care (FCC) practices are challenging from the perspectives of both parents and health professionals. PURPOSE: This study aimed to compare experiences with FCC practices between Iranian mothers and nurses. DESIGN AND METHODS: This comparative cross-sectional study was conducted in 2019 on 233 mothers with hospitalized infants or children and 233 nurses working in neonatal intensive care units or pediatric wards selected using convenience sampling at five hospitals in Iran. Data regarding experiences about FCC practices among mothers and nurses was collected through the Perceptions of Family-Centered Care-Parent (PFCC-P) and the Perceptions of Family-Centered Care-Staff (PFCC-S) questionnaires containing the three subscales of Respect, Collaboration, and Support and 21 similar items. Descriptive and inferential statistics were utilized for data analysis using the IBM SPSS Statistics software. The significance level was set as p<0.05. RESULTS: The mean and standard deviation of mothers' and nurses' experiences of FCC were 2.68 +/- 0.53 and 3.05 +/- 0.39; respectively (range, 1-4). The lowest score belonged to the subscale "respect:' There was a statistically significant difference between mothers and nurses in their experiences with FCC practices in all three subscales. The nurses reported more positive experiences with FCC practices than the mothers did (p<0.001). CONCLUSION: The mothers and nurses exercised FCC differently and nurses' experiences were more positive. Reasons behind the difference in mothers' and nurses' experiences with FCC practices should be investigated. Interventions are required to remove barriers associated with FCC practices in accordance with healthcare in Iran.