What Happens When you Ask for Feedback? Anticipating and Addressing Challenges Can Be Effective for Eliciting...

Area of Science:

• Pediatric critical care
• Health services research
• Patient and public involvement

Background:

• User feedback is vital for evaluating and improving health services.
• Obtaining feedback in acute care, especially pediatric intensive care units (PICUs), presents significant challenges due to stressful environments.
• Effective methods are needed to capture parental experiences in critical care settings.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore stakeholders' perspectives on pediatric critical care retrieval processes.
• To identify and describe strategies for optimizing data collection of parental experiences in PICUs.
• To highlight factors influencing the successful elicitation of feedback from families in difficult circumstances.

Main Methods:

• National study involving questionnaires and interviews with stakeholders.
• Proactive and reactive strategies were employed to optimize data collection.
• Patient and public involvement was integrated throughout the study.
• Engagement with healthcare sites and local research staff was prioritized for family recruitment.

Main Results:

• Developing high-quality study materials reduced local staff burden.
• Prioritizing engagement and commitment from PICU staff was essential.
• Specific strategies were identified for optimizing feedback collection in challenging environments.
• Successful recruitment and data gathering were achieved through proactive and reactive approaches.

Conclusions:

• Effective strategies can overcome challenges in obtaining user feedback from parents in PICUs.
• Engagement and commitment from PICU staff are critical for successful data collection.
• Optimizing data collection methods is key to understanding parental experiences in acute pediatric care.
• This research provides valuable insights for improving health service evaluation in critical care settings.