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My Child Has What? The Most Effective Means of Communication When Delivering a Difficult Diagnosis to the Parents of a Pediatric Patient

For the healthcare provider, disclosing a pediatric patient's difficult diagnosis in the form of an acute or chronic condition to the parents is a challenging task. Healthcare providers often feel unprepared when relaying the news of such diagnosis, and the parents feel equally unprepared upon receiving it (Pririe, 2012). This systematic literature review examined the various communication techniques used in the past, and the techniques' effectiveness in increasing parental satisfaction when first learning of the child's diagnosis. A scarce number of studies related to the most effective techniques were found in the literature, and even fewer were found that evaluated the techniques presented. Overall, three of the most commonly occurring communication themes identified from the studies were: 1) Parents desired privacy during the disclosure and wanted a support system present (mostly a spouse); 2) The diagnosis must be given as soon as the healthcare provider suspected it, and; 3) The healthcare provider must emphasize the positive characteristics of the pediatric patient, as well as the patient's future with the diagnosis. Both parents and providers agreed that further research is needed to identify effective communication techniques used during disclosure. The aim of the research should be to identify the most effective means of communication to increase parental satisfaction. Furthermore, all healthcare providers need collaborative and interdisciplinary training in delivering a difficult diagnosis to increase parental satisfaction.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:ucf.edu/oai:stars.library.ucf.edu:honorstheses1990-2015-2648
Date01 August 2014
CreatorsSethi, Nidhi
PublisherSTARS
Source SetsUniversity of Central Florida
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext
Formatapplication/pdf
SourceHIM 1990-2015

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