Nicole Letourneau

A Multisite Study of Health Professionals’ Perceptions and Practices of Family-Centered Care

Family-centered care (FCC) has been promoted as the optimal philosophy for children and families in their interactions with health professionals. Furthermore, FCC is a health care delivery model that seeks to fully involve families in the care of children through an approach that is respectful and supportive. This multisite survey was undertaken to determine the differences in health professionals’ perceptions and practices of FCC and to examine factors that influence those perceptions and practices. Findings revealed that although advances have been made in recognizing the key elements of FCC, difficulties remain in implementing these elements. The “dilemma of helping,” the potential lack of interprofessional collaboration, the design of the health care delivery system, as well as the potential lack of continuing education and mentoring programs are proposed as explanations for these findings.

Supporting parents : Can intervention improve parent-child relationships?

Healthy child development has been identified as one of the key determinants of health and resiliency in adulthood. This article reports on the results of two pilot studies of randomized controlled trials of parent support interventions aimed at improving the parent-child relationship and indirectly enhancing the resilience capacity among at-risk children. Participating children were at risk for mental health problems due to poverty and/or their parents’ lack of educational attainment, inexperience, and young age. The interventions were composed of parenting skills training and social support. Eighteen families participated in Supportive Intervention I, and 34 families participated in Supportive Intervention II. Results suggested that parent-child relationships were enhanced in both pilot studies. These promising findings offer direction for future research and for nurses and other interventionists providing support to young at-risk families.

Infant crying and parent–infant interaction: Theory and measurement

Les pleurs du nourrisson ont souvent ete determines comme une variable dependante primordiale dans les etudes dont lobjectif etait de comprendre et calmer les pleurs dun nourrisson dans le cadre de la relation parent-nourrisson. Lutilite de quantifier les pleurs denfant est discutee ici dans une revue historique et lexamen detudes ulterieures et des techniques de mesure utilisees. Meme si la duree des pleurs du nourrisson et le moment ou ils surviennent peuvent etre une preoccupation dordre pratique pour les familles et les professionnels de la sante, les tentatives pourmesurer la diminution de ces pleurs ne sont peut-etre pas le meilleur moyen de verifier lefficacite des interventions dapaisement. Il peut etre plus utile de developper une comprehension des pleurs du nourrisson dans le contexte de la relation parent-nourrisson. Celle-ci peut fournir des directives pour le choix des interventions dapaisement et des mesures de leur efficacite.