Clarifying Parents' and Pediatricians' Views of Partnership

Given the importance of partnership in improving health care outcomes among children, there is a substantial need to understand better what partnership means to parents and physicians. The goal of this study was to develop a partnership survey that was based on parents' and pediatricians' opinions about the key concepts of partnership.

Parents of patients visiting an affluent suburban private practice and a federally qualified health center, and 2 groups of pediatricians, were asked to review 61 partnership concepts and identify those they considered as being important to partnership.

Parents and pediatricians from both practices agreed that 42 (68.9%) of the concepts were important to partnership. Sixteen of these concepts were dropped because they were redundant. Parents from both the suburban practice and health center identified 5 (8.2%) concepts that they believed contributed to partnership. Seven (11.5%) concepts were viewed as important to parents and pediatricians from the suburban practice but not to parents from the health center. Significant socioeconomic differences between the 2 parent groups suggested factors that explained the differences between parent groups.

The 38 concepts endorsed by parents and pediatricians provided a nuanced view of partnership and formed the Parent Pediatrician Partnership Survey.