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Making choices: why parents present to the emergency department for non-urgent care
A Williams1, P O'Rourke, S Keogh
1Nursing Research Unit, Royal Children's Hospital, Queensland, Australia. alison_williams@health.qld.gov.au
Insights
Parents accurately assess their child's condition, often seeking advice before visiting the pediatric emergency department for non-urgent issues. This highlights gaps in primary care accessibility and appropriateness for certain conditions.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Emergency Medicine
- Health Services Research
- Parental Behavior Studies
Background:
- Parents frequently present children with non-urgent conditions to tertiary pediatric emergency departments.
- Understanding parental decision-making for seeking emergency care is crucial for resource allocation and service improvement.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the motivations and behaviors of parents seeking emergency care for children with non-urgent injuries or illnesses.
- To evaluate the accuracy of parental assessment of child's condition prior to emergency department presentation.
Main Methods:
- A prospective questionnaire-based survey was conducted with 355 parents of children attending a tertiary pediatric emergency department.
- Data collected included care-giving and care-seeking behaviors before presentation.
Main Results:
- Parents perceived their child's condition as moderate to very serious (68%).
- Two-thirds (66%) sought advice before attending the emergency department.
- Presentation times varied: 54% of injury cases presented within 4 hours, while 41% of illness cases presented within 2-7 days.
Conclusions:
- Parents demonstrate accurate "parental triage," generally exhibiting appropriate care-seeking behaviors.
- The study identifies deficiencies in primary care services, indicating that some non-urgent cases cannot be adequately managed in primary care settings.
Objectives:
This study aims to provide a better understanding of the motivations and actions of parents of children with non-urgent injury or illness who attend the emergency department at a tertiary paediatric hospital seeking care.
Design:
A prospective questionnaire-based survey of 355 parents aimed to ascertain information about parent care-giving and care-seeking behaviours prior to presentation at the emergency department with their child.
Results:
A total of 355 parents were surveyed, representing 8% of the parents/carers presenting to the emergency department in a 3-month period for non-urgent (Australasian Triage System 4 and 5) care of their child. The factors identified were: parents rated their child's condition as moderate to very serious (242 (68%)); two-thirds of parents (234 (66%)) had sought advice prior to attending the emergency department; 54% (77) of the 137 children who attended with an injury presented promptly to emergency (ie, within 4 h of injury) whereas of the 216 presenting with an illness, 41% (88) presented within 2-7 days of the onset of the illness.
Conclusions:
This study displayed the accuracy of "parental triage," that is, parents assess their child's health and generally engage in appropriate care-giving and care-seeking behaviours before presenting to a paediatric emergency department. Highlighted are the deficiencies in current primary care services available to families and the perception that not all cases deemed as non-urgent by the emergency department are able to be dealt with in a primary care setting.
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