Promoting Family-Centred Service: Impact of an Online Module on Service Providers' Self-Reported Skills, Practice and...

Family-centred service (FCS) has been recognized as best practice in paediatric healthcare; however, its implementation remains quite challenging. Many service providers (SPs) lack confidence in applying FCS, hindering the translation of knowledge into clinical practice. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of an online FCS module on the self-reported skills, practice and confidence of SPs.

A quasi-experimental pre-post-follow-up design was used with 33 participants completing the pretest, 14 completing the post-test and 10 completing the follow-up test after 8 weeks. Self-perceived FCS practice and confidence were measured using the Measure of Processes of Care-Service Provider (MPOC-SP) and Confidence (MPOC-Con). Additionally, SPs' self-reported skills and practical application of FCS were assessed through a separate questionnaire. Repeated measures multivariate analysis of variance and the Friedman test were used to analyse changes in scores over time.

Self-reported FCS skills improved significantly, with six of the eight items showing higher scores at the post-test and follow-up test than at the pretest. Participants' self-reported practical application also increased, with follow-up test scores being significantly higher than both pre- and post-test scores. The MPOC-SP and MPOC-Con domains showed significant improvements, particularly in the 'providing general information' domain of MPOC-SP, which improved gradually over time.

The online FCS module improved SPs' self-reported skills, confidence and family-centred practices. These findings suggest that web-based knowledge translation resources can bridge the knowledge-to-practice gap in FCS, although further research is needed to evaluate their long-term effects.