Designed for health professionals (nurses, doctors and allied health professionals) who work with children, the “Working with Families” questionnaire measures how they feel about working with children and working with their parents. It has been used in six countries (Australia, the United Kingdom, United States of America, Turkey, Indonesia and Thailand) in varying clinical practice settings1-3, ranging from tertiary referral children’s hospitals to community child health services. The questions as about perceptions of working with children and working with their parents, and also includes a range of demographic characteristics. The semantic differentials technique, from which an average is obtained, allows comparison of the scores between working with children and working with parents, and correlations with demographic factors.
Methods:
In studies to date, results have been consistently similar, regardless of setting or country. The country-specific analyses are descriptive, and there was no multivariate analysis because of small sample sizes. However, in the various studies, the relationships to demographic factors have been different and so there is a need to pool the data.
Results:
To date, while overall the scores are on the positive end of the scales, there is a significantly more negative score (p>0.001) given for working with parents than working with children. Characteristics which influence scores include level of education of participants, speciality education in paediatrics/child health, and older age levels. Analysis continues and will be complete early 2018.
Conclusion:
Family-centred care as a model of care is ubiquitous internationally in health services which care for children, including in non-Western countries4. Its successful implementation is contingent on effective communication between health professionals and families. It is recognised that effective implementation of family-centred care is problematic5. This meta-analysis gives insight into influences on the delivery of family-centred care. It provides evidence on which international policies and guidelines about the best way to care for children can be devised.