6176 Hello, your name is? How we address parents and the importance of building a doctor-parent relationship

Objectives Parents are generally the best advocates for their child and experts in their care, and should therefore be considered active members of the multidisciplinary team. How we form and maintain relationships with parents is essential to empowering participation and encouraging partnership in decision making, especially with regards to recognising and escalating deterioration. The 'Don't Call Me Mum' initiative began in 2016, and 'asks practitioners to demonstrate their passion for working co-productively with parents by simply using the parent's name'.¹ Previous research in America has demonstrated that over one-third of mothers and almost half of fathers prefer to be greeted by their first name rather than 'Mum/Dad'.² The aim of this project was to investigate whether this held true for our parent population, and to assess and improve our current practice in relation to this. Methods An initial single time point survey was conducted across paediatric and neonatal services at our hospital, with questionnaires assessing parents' and doctors' viewpoints. Based on these results, parents' names were added to the handover lists and a post intervention survey was conducted. Results Interestingly, in our service 100% of parents surveyed were comfortable being called 'Mum/Dad' in hospital, and this was the preferred label of 60% of parents (compared to first name, title + surname, or 'other'). However, the questionnaire revealed that only 20% of parents were asked their preference with respect to this. Most (82%) of the medical team felt that this topic is important and impacts their clinical practice. The initial survey revealed that 76% of doctors used 'Mum/Dad' in interactions 'all the time' with parents and 100% were comfortable with calling patients' parents 'Mum/Dad'. After the inclusion of parents' names on handover lists, the number of doctors using 'Mum/Dad' 'all the time' reduced to 53%, and those only using these generic terms 'occasionally' increased from 24% to 47%. The majority (82%) of the medical team felt that the intervention was helpful. Conclusion Establishing and maintaining relationships with parents is essential to providing good care for children. Our data shows that whilst most of the parents surveyed locally prefer to be addressed as 'Mum/Dad', the inclusion of parent's names on handover documentation (which improves confidence in conversations with parents) was considered valuable by most doctors. Further projects should continue to explore this important area of the doctor-parent relationship, particularly around the barriers that parents face in participating in their child's care. References Rachel Wright. Don't call me mum. (https://www.bornattherighttime.com/dont-call-me-mum/), Accessed October 2023. Nathaniel D Bayer, et al. Should we call you mom and dad? Caregiver preferences and pediatric physician and nurse manner in greetings. November 2019.