'What I said' versus 'what you heard': a comparison of physicians' and parents' reporting of anticipatory guidance on child safety issues.

Abstract

Objective Unintentional injuries are the number one cause of death for infants. Many of these injuries could be prevented if parents took additional safety precautions. In this study physicians' and parents' perspectives regarding the part that physicians play in educating first time parents about child safety issues were compared. Methods-All pediatricians and family physicians in London, Ontario were surveyed by mail (68% return rate) regarding their practices, attitudes, and beliefs related to parent education about child safety issues. A sample of 114 first time mothers, including 38 each with 6,12, and 18 month old infants, completed a telephone interview. All parents had physicians who had returned questionnaires. Results-There was good correspondence between parents' and physicians' judgments about the safety issues most often covered, and what role physicians should adopt regarding parent education about child safety issues. In addition, they both agreed that parents seldom seek out safety information by asking questions. Relative to parent reports, however, physicians significantly overestimated the time they spent on safety issues and the degree of their direct involvement in communicating this information. The best predictor of time spent by physicians on safety issues was their rating of the importance of assuming the role of parent educator. The best predictor of parents asking questions about child safety was their rating of the adequacy of physicians' responses to previously asked questions. Conclusions-The results suggest that both physicians and parents contribute to undermine communication about child safety during well-baby visits. (Injury Prevention 1995; 1: 223-227)

Baby, Be Safe: the effect of tailored communications for pediatric injury prevention provided in a primary care setting

“…In spite of these recommendations, several studies have indicated that injury prevention is either not discussed at all or covered only briefly during the course of routine visits [32,33]. This is not an uncommon finding for preventive service delivery in clinical settings.…”

Parent–provider communication and parental satisfaction with care of children with psychosocial problems

“…[4;7-11] Furthermore, there is some evidence that providers avoid or discourage parental disclosure of psychosocial concerns, [12] which may affect parents' willingness to discuss such concerns in future visits. [13] In fact, parents are often hesitant to discuss psychosocial concerns with their child's pediatrician. [5,9,14] Only half of parents who either have psychosocial concerns or a child with a psychiatric diagnosis disclose these concerns to their child's pediatrician.…”

“…Recent work with children suggests that a patient-centered approach [25], and more specifically, use of interpersonal communication skills such as empathy, praise and collaboration [26][27][28] are associated with positive outcomes as well. It may be particularly important to assess this communication style with families with psychosocial concerns given that these families represent a growing segment of the patients seen by pediatricians [1], these encounters may be at increased risk for ineffective parent-provider communication [5,9,[12][13][14], and there are new recommendations that pediatricians employ collaboration, empathy, and praise with families when addressing psychosocial concerns. [15] The present investigation asked: How do parents of children with psychosocial problems perceive their child's provider's interpersonal communication skills?…”

Opiniones, prácticas y conocimientos de pediatras sobre la prevención de lesiones no intencionales

“…Los pediatras están en una posición privilegiada para abordar estos temas, generar conciencia y buscar estrategias de prevención junto con la familia y la comunidad. [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14] En nuestro trabajo, se observó que, a diferencia de la anterior encuesta, 5 los pediatras de menor antigüedad adquirían más conocimientos sobre prevención de lesiones durante el pregrado y durante la residencia, lo que revelaría una mayor preocupación de las instituciones formadoras acerca de este tema. Siguiendo con esta tendencia, los profesionales que habían terminado más recientemente su entrenamiento pediátrico abordaban más tópicos de supervisión/guías anticipatorias en las consultas de niño sano.…”

“…[7][8][9][12][13][14][15] El modo de llevarla a cabo se basaba, principalmente, en la transmisión verbal, que era poco efectiva. 5,[10][11][12] Este trabajo tiene fortalezas y debilidades.…”