Practices and perceptions of family-centred care among children’s nurses in Ireland

Family-centered care embraces the child and family as a unit and encourages the inclusion of the family in both the planning and provision of the child’s care in the health-care setting. Children’s nurses have signified their acceptance and knowledge of family-centered care and they have also indicated that they do not always incorporate this knowledge into their practice. The literature suggests that children’s nurses find it easier to offer descriptions of family-centered care than to implement it in practice. While a wealth of literature relating to family-centered care practices from an international perspective exists, there was a dearth of literature on family-centered care practices among children’s nurses in Ireland. Descriptive quantitative methodology was employed to guide this study. Data were collected using the Family-Centered Care Questionnaire Revised on a purposive sample of 300 children’s nurses in two children’s hospitals in Ireland. The findings of this study concur with international literature; as significant differences were found in the respondents practice and perception of family-centered care.