Telephone advice nursing: parents’ experiences of monitoring calls in children with gastroenteritis

Abstract

A common reason for calling a telephone advice nurse is gastroenteritis symptoms in children. A monitoring call is a follow-up call from the telephone nurse to the care seeker in order to follow up on given advice and make a new assessment. The aim of the study was to describe the parents' experiences of monitoring calls in telephone advice nursing in children with gastroenteritis. A qualitative interview method was chosen and data were analysed inductively with a qualitative latent content analysis. Ten parents, nine mothers and one father were interviewed. Four main categories and 13 subcategories were identified and described as useful, and the main categories were convenience - parents found it convenient to get access to self-care advice at home, confirmation - the interaction between the telephone nurse and the parent seemed to become deeper and closer as a result of the monitoring call, support - in a vulnerable situation receiving further information and an opportunity to let the telephone nurse monitor the sick child and guidance - to be guided through the most acute phase in the child's gastroenteritis symptoms. Monitoring calls seemed to be experienced as a security enhancing, positive opportunity and a robust complement to seeking care at a healthcare facility. The results of the study indicate how inhabitants can receive expert advice, support and guidance for care and provide a useful basis for Swedish Healthcare Direct (SHD) to develop the modalities for monitoring calls.

Telephone nursing in Sweden: A narrative literature review

“…The overall satisfaction of this group of callers was high. Parents calling on behalf of their children appreciated when RNs called back to follow up or make a new assessment (Kaminsky et al ; Kvilén Eriksson et al ).…”

Impact of a nurse led telephone intervention on satisfaction and health outcomes of children with inflammatory rheumatic diseases and their families: a crossover randomized clinical trial

“…Telehealth in the pediatric population has been less studied so far, but satisfaction and patient’s perception have been investigated. Improved communication and symptom management was demonstrated in studies with an advanced symptom management system (ASyMS©) for cancer patients [40–44], and value of convenience, confirmation, support and guidance brought by TN was showed for parents of children with gastroenteritis [18]. …”

“…In some studies involving children with complex special healthcare needs, TN interventions were more geared towards alleviating physicians’ workload and compensating for subspecialist shortage [14–16]. In studies targeting parents and children directly, TN was done via a Helpline for parents of children with congenital anomalies [17], or suffering from gastroenteritis [18] or via Smartphone text for mothers and children undergoing tonsillectomy [17–19]. To the best of our knowledge, no studies testing the effect of TN in pediatric ambulatory care for children with chronic disease have been published so far.…”

Telenurses’ experiences of monitoring calls to parents of children with gastroenteritis

“…1177 handles about 4.5 million calls per year, of which 275 000 are registered as monitoring calls. Monitoring calls in telenursing have been described as when telenurses call care‐seekers back once or twice after an initial call (). This can occur when telenurses feel unsure about their assessments and this has, therefore, been described as one basis of telenurses assessments .…”

“…Around half of the calls resulted in self‐care advice, and these care‐seekers were not referred to any other healthcare service . Research from the past decade shows that care‐seekers call to gain a sense of security and that adequate advice and professional and friendly care from the telenurses were important .…”