Management of the parent in pediatric practice—Workshop, 1960: 1. Management of the parents of the chronically ill child.

With advances in modern medicine, changes occurred in pediatric practice which placed broadened responsibilities on the pediatrician. Parents turn increasingly to the child's doctor for guidance concerning the physical and emotional aspects of development. Hospitals function as diagnostic and surgical centers and the medical wards become populated with chronically and lethally ill children, while the child who is admitted for acute illness is usually severely sick. All these changes brought the pediatrician into more intimate contact with the parents. Now he is faced not only with the recognition of the parent's emotional reactions to the child's illness but with the realization of his own important role in helping the family. This understanding exerts pressure on him to re-examine his own reactions to parents and to illness and death.