OC40 - Family participation in caring for hospitalized children - nurses' perspectives.

UNLABELLED Theme: Professional issues Aim: To understand nurses' perspective about the presence and participation of parents/caregivers during child's hospitalization. METHOD Quantitative, descriptive and exploratory study. Data collection in 2011 through questionnaire. RESULTS The sample comprised 146 nurses that work in paediatric wards in five different hospitals in the North of Portugal; aged between 23 to 59 years old; 93.1% were female; the average professional time was 10.7 years with 9.4 years of professional practice in an inpatient paediatric ward; 89% recognize the importance of parents/caregivers staying at hospital all day with their children during hospitalization; 63.4% always promote the involvement of parents/caregivers in the basic care; 42.5% involved them in more complex care; 9.6% didn't have the habit of explaining the nursing care to the parents before performing them. CONCLUSIONS It is important that nurses recognize the benefits of effectively involving parents/caregivers in the care, negotiation and decision-making process regarding the child's care.