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Childhood fever in well-child clinics: a focus group study among doctors and nurses
Kirsten K B Peetoom1, Luc J L Ploum2, Jacqueline J M Smits2
1Department of Family Medicine, CAPHRI School for Public Health and Primary Care, Maastricht University, PO Box 616, 6200, MD, Maastricht, The Netherlands. kirsten.peetoom@maastrichtuniversity.nl.
Insights
Pediatric fever management is a concern for parents, often leading to healthcare visits. Well-child clinics can improve fever information delivery to better support parents and enhance their coping skills.
Area of Science:
- Pediatrics
- Public Health
- Health Communication
Background:
- Childhood fever is a common pediatric concern, frequently causing parental anxiety and increased healthcare utilization.
- Current parent education on fever management often occurs reactively during illness, highlighting a need for proactive strategies.
- Well-child clinics offer a potential setting for preemptive parental education on childhood fever management.
Purpose of the Study:
- To explore well-child clinic professionals' experiences with childhood fever.
- To examine current practices for providing fever information to parents.
- To identify opportunities for improving fever management education in well-child settings.
Main Methods:
- Four focus group discussions were conducted with 22 well-child clinic professionals.
- A naturalistic inquiry approach guided the focus groups.
- Constant comparative technique was used for data analysis.
Main Results:
- Professionals frequently address parental questions about childhood fever, driven primarily by parental worries.
- Parental worries stem from lack of knowledge, personal experiences, educational background, social networks, and inconsistent medical advice.
- Information provision is perceived as inadequate, with a need for clearer, more accessible, and consistent guidance.
Conclusions:
- Childhood fever inquiries are prevalent in well-child care, with parental anxiety being a key driver.
- There is a recognized need to enhance current, limited information dissemination regarding childhood fever.
- Future interventions should address parental knowledge, experience, socioeconomic factors, and healthcare provider consistency to improve fever management and practical skills.
Background:
Fever is common in children aged 0-4 years old and often leads to parental worries and in turn, high use of healthcare services. Educating parents may have beneficial effects on their sense of coping and fever management. Most parents receive information when their child is ill but it might be more desirable to educate parents in the setting of well-child clinics prior to their child becoming ill, in order to prepare parents for future illness management. This study aims to explore experiences of well-child clinic professionals when dealing with childhood fever and current practices of fever information provision to identify starting points for future interventions.
Methods:
We held four focus group discussions based on naturalistic enquiry among 22 well-child clinic professionals. Data was analysed using the constant comparative technique.
Results:
Well-child clinic professionals regularly received questions from parents about childhood fever and felt that parental worries were the major driving factor behind these contacts. These worries were assumed to be driven by: (1) lack of knowledge (2) experiences with fever (3) educational level and size social network (4) inconsistencies in paracetamol administration advice among healthcare professionals. Well-child clinic professionals perceive current information provision as limited and stated a need for improvement. For example, information should be consistent, easy to find and understand.
Conclusions:
Fever-related questions are common in well-child care and professionals perceive that most of the workload is driven by parental worries. The focus group discussions revealed a desire to optimise the current limited information provision for childhood fever. Future interventions aimed at improving information provision for fever in well-child clinics should consider parental level of knowledge, experience, educational level and social network and inconsistencies among healthcare providers. Future fever information provision should focus on improving fever management and practical skills.
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