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Experience-based co-design of paediatric burn service guidance to support parent-administered home dressing changes
Samantha Goodliffe1, Clare Thomas2, Jonathan Mathers1
1University of Birmingham, UK.
Insights
This study developed new service guidance to help parents manage their child's burn dressing changes at home. The guidance, created through co-design, aims to improve support for families and standardize home care practices.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Burn Care
- Patient and Family Support
- Healthcare Service Design
Background:
- Over 30,000 children annually need outpatient treatment for burn injuries.
- Home-based burn dressing changes are common but often lack standardized support for families.
- Families report insufficient psychological and social support for home dressing care.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop evidence-based service guidance for parent-administered paediatric home dressing changes.
- To address the practical, psychological, and social needs of families managing home burn care.
- To improve practitioner confidence and consistency in supporting home dressing changes.
Main Methods:
- Employed experience-based co-design with parents and practitioners across three pediatric burn services.
- Utilized clinic observations and interviews to gather user priorities and inform guidance development.
- Piloted and refined the service guidance and resources based on feedback from co-design events.
Main Results:
- Co-designed guidance includes checklists, parent leaflets, and instructional videos for home dressing changes.
- The service guidance was successfully implemented across participating pediatric burn centers.
- Practitioners reported increased confidence and improved communication when supporting families in home care.
Conclusions:
- Experience-based co-design effectively achieved consensus on best practices for pediatric home burn care.
- The developed guidance is adaptable across different pediatric burn service settings.
- The guidance provides a competency framework for nursing standards in supporting parent-administered home dressings.
Background:
Annually over 30,000 children require outpatient treatment for burn accidents. Attending clinic appointments has a negative psychological and social impact on families. Many burns centres offer families the option to administer dressing changes at home without standardised supporting guidance. Families administering dressing changes at home reported a lack of support. This study developed service guidance to support parent-administered paediatric home dressing changes.
Method:
Experience-based co-design of service guidance and resources was conducted to address the priorities of service users. Data were collected through clinic observations and interviews with practitioners and parents at three paediatric burns services. Findings were shared with practitioners and parents at co-design events to facilitate agreement on the priorities for service improvements. Two working groups were formed to co-design outputs. The service guidance and resources were piloted across the three sites. Clinic observations and interviews with practitioners and parents were conducted. The findings were shared with a working group who co-designed amendments to the service guidance and resources.
Results:
The co-designed service guidance included checklists to assess suitability for parent administered dressing changes, how to offer and perform dressing changes, and post-clinic support, and a parent leaflet and video on administering dressing changes. Contents were designed to support the practical, psychological, and social elements of dressing changes. The service guidance was implemented across the three sites. In clinic observations, practitioners appeared more confident and informative when offering and supporting families to administer dressings.
Conclusion:
Using experience-based co-design to develop service improvements across three paediatric burns services was effective in reaching consensus on best practice. While each burns service was different, they experienced commonalties making the co-designed service guidance suitable to apply across different paediatric burns services. The service guidance offers a competency framework for paediatric burns nursing practice standards to support parent administer home dressings.
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