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Parental Understanding of Surgical Care in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit
Robert C Wright1, Claudia Mueller1
1Department of Surgery, Stanford University, Stanford, California.
Insights
Many parents of children undergoing surgery have limited understanding of their child's condition and treatment. Seeking outside information and higher education levels significantly improve parental comprehension of pediatric surgical care.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Surgery
- Medical Education
- Patient Comprehension
Background:
- Pediatric surgeons frequently communicate complex medical information to parents.
- Understanding of this information by parents is often unknown.
- This study investigates parental comprehension of surgical care for pediatric patients.
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess parental understanding of their child's surgical diagnosis and treatment.
- To identify factors influencing parental comprehension.
- To improve communication strategies in pediatric surgery.
Main Methods:
- Survey administered to parents of neonatal intensive care unit patients post-surgery.
- Assessed comprehension across six domains: diagnosis, procedure, risks, benefits, and post-discharge care.
- Collected data on parental demographics and prenatal diagnosis status.
Main Results:
- 66% of parents could describe their child's primary surgical condition.
- Fewer parents understood the risks and benefits of the procedures.
- Parental use of external resources and higher education levels correlated with better understanding.
Conclusions:
- Parental understanding of pediatric surgical procedures can be limited.
- Effective information delivery is crucial for patient care.
- Further research is needed to optimize communication methods for parents.
Background:
Pediatric surgeons are routinely required to discuss complex diagnoses and treatment plans with the parents of their patients. Yet, how well this information is understood by its target audience is unknown. To explore this issue, we asked parents of postoperative neonatal intensive care unit patients to describe their children's care in a variety of domains. Our goal was to assess the degree of parental understanding and to identify factors that influenced comprehension.
Materials And Methods:
Parents of neonatal intensive care unit patients who underwent a general surgical procedure were asked to complete a survey of their children's care in six domains of comprehension: name of the primary diagnosis, description of the primary diagnosis, description of the purpose of surgery, identification of surgical risks, identification of surgical benefits, and identification of concerning signs or symptoms to look for after discharge. Parental demographic factors such as age, level of education, and socioeconomic status were recorded, as was the presence of a prenatal diagnosis.
Results:
Overall, 66% of participants described their child's primary surgical condition. Even fewer were able to describe a benefit or risk of the procedure. Parental use of outside resources to gain information was found to significantly relate to parental understanding in all domains. Parental level of education also improved comprehension.
Conclusions:
Parental understanding of surgical procedures, including the events leading up to and after an operation, is an important component of overall patient care. However, we were able to demonstrate that this understanding may be limited in spite of the best efforts of medical professionals. Further investigations should focus on ways in which information can be delivered more effectively to parents.
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