For parents of sick children, one of the most important measures of quality hospital care is how well nurses communicate about treatment, tests and pain management.

In the July-August 2008 issue of Pediatric Nursing, Susan Hong and her co-authors explore the relationship between nurses' communication and pediatric parents' satisfaction. The authors studied the pediatric unit of a United States teaching hospital on the west coast. The unit had received a lower than 50% ranking for nurse communication.

According to the authors, parents prefer language they can understand - not medical terminology, as well as assurance from caregivers in uncertain situations. They also want to build a sense of trust with nurses and health care providers.

In the study, the researchers tested the hypothesis that patient/parent satisfaction ratings would rise if an inservice to improve nurses' communication was offered and if a handout was given to parents regarding effective pain management. The authors surveyed 50 randomly selected parents of discharged patients both before and after these interventions took place.

In their findings, the authors report there were positive trends in nurse communication cited by the parents after the interventions (an increase from 81.6% to 85.3% in overall satisfaction), nurse instructions for treatments and tests (78% to 82%) and for pain management (80.8% to 82.4%). As a result, the pediatric units of the hospital now provide the handout to parents of patients with pain issues and the authors recommend that future inservices may also be a useful intervention.

"Parental Satisfaction with Nurses' Communication and Pain Management in a Pediatric Unit"
Susan S. Hong, MS, FNP-C, RN; Susan O. Murphy, DNS, RN; and Phyllis M. Connolly, PhD, APRN-BC, CS
Pediatric Nursing, July-August 2008

Pediatric Nursing