Parents' trust in nurses: an ethnographic study of the nurse-parent relationship within the paediatric setting

Abstract

The establishment of trust in the nurse-parent relationship is espoused to be fundamental in achieving partnership-in-care within paediatric nursing. Paediatric nursing has progressed since the 1960's and in the 1990's, the major breakthrough was the emergence of the partnership model. Hence, it would be ideal to investigate the elements facilitating the foundation of trust in the formation of a nurse-parent relationship. The purpose of this study is to identify the concept of formation of trust in the relationship between parents whose children suffer from chronic asthma and the paediatric nurses responsible for their care in a paediatric medical setting. The study also determined and explored the characteristics of a trustworthy nurse, and identified those factors which facilitated or impeded the development of trust between the paediatric nurse and the parent within the culture of the paediatric medical setting. Parents of hospitalised children were sought for data collection. Data was collected using field observations and semi-structured interviews. Participant observation and all ethnographic field notes were used to describe culture in relation to the concept of trust in the nurse-parent relationship. The findings indicated that elements vital to the development of trust between parents and paediatric nurses were pre-existing trust, knowledge of asthma, communication, building a relationship and confidentiality. Based on these findings, a model of trust and partnership was developed. The implications of the findings have been significantly related to keeping parents informed of their child's condition, the continuity in nursing care and paediatric nurses to introduce themselves at the beginning of each change of shift.