Home care services for children

‒ parents experiences focusing on participation in care

Background

Previous studies about hospital- and community-based home care for children shows that it is safe, cost efficient and preferable by parents. Studies have been done about parent´s participation in care at hospitals but not in the home care setting. In Sweden not all children have access to home care services. The quality improvement intervention, to increase access to home care services took place at a children´s clinic at a county hospital in southern Sweden.

Aim

The purpose of the improvement effort was to enhance home care for children by the means of identifying children at the hospital who were suitable for offering the service.

The purpose of the study was to investigate how parents experiences home care service for children in terms of participation in the child´s care and decision-making regarding it.

Methods

Eight interviews were carried out with ten parents of children that had received home care during the period from March 2013 to February 2014. The interviews focused on experiences primarily regarding parents participation in the child´s care and decision-making, and were semi-structured. The content was transcribed verbatim and analyzed by using qualitative content analysis with an inductive approach.

Results

During November 2013 to April 2014 seventeen children were identified as suitable for home care and eleven of them actually received home care service. This was an increase from the previous 6 month, when four children received the service.

The three themes and nine subthemes that emerged, describing parent´s experiences, showed that they felt they had good communication with doctors and staff, they experienced involvement in care and decision-making, and that the best of the whole family was prioritized.

Conclusions

Parents felt that home care was invaluable in terms of being able to live a normal life, for the family as a hole. The result supports a person-centered care approach and emphasizes the equal dialogue as a tool. Further studies are needed to enlighten children´s own experiences about home care, participation in their own treatment and decision-making regarding care form.