Background: Nurses, as the most important and largest professional group providing care to children and families, play a crucial role in collaborating with the parents of hospitalized children. The foundation of nursing care is based on a family-centered approach, where families are actively involved in the care process. The provision of family-centered care in educational and medical centers requires skilled nurses with high self-efficacy. Nurses with high self-efficacy are believed to demonstrate high competence in collaborating with children, parents, and colleagues. Therefore, this study assessed the relationship between nurses' professional self-efficacy and parents' perception of family-centered care for hospitalized children.
Methods: The present descriptive-correlational study was conducted in 2024 at the Pediatric Specialty Center of Ardabil in northwest Iran. 200 nurses were selected using a census method, and 220 parents of hospitalized children were selected through stratified random sampling. Data were collected using two valid and reliable tools: the Professional Self-Efficacy Questionnaire for Nurses, and the Perception of Family-Centered Care Questionnaire. The data were analyzed using independent t-tests, one-way analysis of variance, and Pearson’s correlation coefficient tests using SPSS version 24.
Results: According to the results, 54% of the nurses reported their level of professional self-efficacy as moderate, while 78% of the parents’ Perception of family-centered care in nursing was moderate. A significant correlation was found between nurses' professional self-efficacy and parents' perception of family-centered care (r = 0.2, P = 0.004).
Conclusions: The findings indicate a weak correlation between nurses' professional self-efficacy and parents' perception of family-centered care. Therefore, nursing managers and administrators might consider organizing workshops to enhance nurses' self-efficacy and collaboration with parents, which could lead to improved quality of nursing care for hospitalized children.
