Our work

Acutely Sick Kid Parent Information Project (ASK PIP)

Jan 2012 - Jan 2013
Funded by an NIHR Programme Grant held by Professor Matthew Thompson at the University of Oxford


Parents’ and healthcare professionals’ use of information resources during decision making in acute childhood illness at home. This project used a qualitative design, using the key elements of grounded theory, to determine parents and health care professionals use of information, what they liked, disliked and what they wanted to see in the future. Methods included focus groups and interviews with 27 parents from a range of socioeconomic groups and 16 first contact healthcare professionals in the East Midlands of the UK.

Methods

This project used a qualitative design, using the key elements of grounded theory, to determine parent’s and health care professional’s use of information, what they liked, disliked and what they wanted to see in the future. We used focus groups and interviews with 27 parents from a range of socioeconomic groups and 16 first contact healthcare professionals in the East Midlands of the UK.

Findings

Parents’ safety netting behaviour

Parents’ pre-consultation information seeking was dominated by the internet, albeit with limited success. Some parents always sought information through personal contact whilst others did so when independent information seeking failed. When talking about the information they had received during consultations, although they did not always receive information, parents reported that they liked to be given information to refer to later, although the information received varied. Parents expressed a preference for safety netting information that was easy to access, professionally validated, using simple messages with access to more detailed information. Importantly, neither hard copy nor the internet was accessible for parents with low levels of literacy.

Health care professionals’ safety netting behaviour

Health care professionals defined safety netting as including advising parents about what to look for, when and where to seek help. Yet they also reported that its delivery was inconsistent, whether verbal or written. Safety netting was reported to be influenced by the clinician’s experience, confidence, time and knowledge, their perceptions of the parent’s anxiety, experience and competence. They also reported limitations to safety netting such as not knowing if the information had been understood or effective. No clinicians reported having received training in safety netting.