Centeredness in Healthcare: A Concept Synthesis of Family-centered Care, Person-centered Care and Child-centered Care

Abstract

Background: Increasingly within healthcare, different kind of 'centeredness' are used to denote the focus of care which can create confusion for practitioners.

Methods: A concept analysis was undertaken to identify the antecedents, attributes and relationship between family-, person-, and child-centered care. PubMed and CINAHL were searched from 2012 to 2017 and thirty-five papers were reviewed.

Results: Both person- and child-centered care are focused on individuals, a symmetric relationship and the tailoring of care to individual needs while family- centered care is focused on the family as a unit of which the child is included. Person-centered care focuses on an adult person with autonomy, while the focus in child-centered care is the individual child as an own actor with rights but still close to a family.

Conclusion: It appears at a conceptual level that the concepts of centeredness contain both similarities and differences. Finding ways to structure nursing and focus the care that respects a person's dignity and humanity is essential in healthcare and should be a major goal of health policy and health systems worldwide.

Implications: The identification of the antecedents and attributes embedded in the concepts may help raise professionals' awareness of the different foci and how this will influence one's practice. There is a need to recognize strengths and weaknesses of the centeredness in different settings and environments. Furthermore, it is important to know which approach to apply within different situations so that quality care is enabled for every person, child and family.

Keywords: Centeredness; Child-centered care; Concept analysis; Family-centered care; Person-centered care.