To promote child involvement - healthcare professionals’ use of a health-related quality of life assessment tool during paediatric encounters

Abstract

Background, aims and objectives: Children and healthcare professionals should be provided with easy-to-use tools which could lead to actionable results. There is increasing interest in the use of patient-reported outcomes to aid management of individual care; therefore the use of health-related quality of life (HRQOL) assessments during consultations need to be studied. The aim of this study was to explore how healthcare professionals use a HRQOL assessment tool during paediatric encounters. Methods: A descriptive, explorative design with a qualitative approach based on video-recordings was chosen. Twenty-one video recordings, from 9 different healthcare professionals’ consultations where an assessment tool of HRQOL were used, were analysed by content analysis. Results: The healthcare professionals were using different strategies and when they combined these strategies 3 approaches emerged. The instructing approach was characterized by healthcare professionals giving a summary of the results, leading to children becoming passive bystanders in the encounter. An inviting approach, requesting the children’s perceptions of their situation resulted in the children becoming involved in the conversations. Conclusions: The child’s involvement could be facilitated depending on which approach was being used. When an inviting and engaging approach is used, actions in a non-linear set of interactions was co-produced with the child. The use of an HRQOL assessment tool changed the management during consultations and acted to promote child involvement.