Parents' Participation in Providing Care for Hospitalized Children: the Congruence Between Nurses'and Parents' Desire

Parents' participation in the care of their hospitalized children is recognized as a key component of effective child health care. The current study aimed to investigating the congruence between nurses' desired for parent' participation in the care of their hospitalized children, and the parents' actual participation in the care. A descriptive correlation cross-sectional design was used by utilizing a self-administered questionnaire. 227 nurses working at pediatric wards and 294 parents of hospitalized children aged 12 years and under were a convenience sample of this study. Two categories were derived from the study: activities related to physical care and psycho-social support. There were positive correlations between parents? participation in care and parents' experience to hospitalization to experts' females' nurses holding BSc. degree, children with chronic disease, less than six years aged, with prolonged staying at hospital. Recognizing the value of parents' participation, as an important issue and one that must not be ignored, health care managers and policy makers need to play a more visible and instrumental role in developing policies related to parents' participation.