Toward Family-Centered Inpatient Medical Care: The Role of Parents as Participants in Medical Decisions

Abstract

To determine parental participation in medical decision-making (MDM) during hospitalization and its association with parental self-efficacy and to explore other factors associated with participation. We surveyed parents of children admitted to a pediatric medical unit to measure parental report of participation in MDM during hospitalization and self-efficacy with physician interactions (categorized into tertiles). We performed multivariate logistic regression to evaluate the association between self-efficacy and parental participation, controlling for potential confounders. One hundred thirty of 278 eligible parents completed surveys and 86% reported participating in MDM about their child's care. After adjusting for covariates, parents with scores in the middle and highest self-efficacy tertiles had higher odds of participating in MDM compared with parents in the lowest tertile. Younger parents and parents of previously hospitalized children were also more likely to participate although parents with a high school education or less were less likely. Self-efficacy was significantly associated with parental participation in MDM during hospitalization after adjusting for confounding factors. Interventions to increase self-efficacy may also improve parental participation in MDM.