Parents, nurses and paediatric nursing: a critical review

Abstract

The desirability of encouraging parents to live-in with their hospitalized child is widely accepted (Department of Health 1991). This review traces the historical development of parental involvement in paediatrics. The literature reviewed shows that parental participation and living-in has been viewed largely as philosophically and professionally unproblematic. These 'cardinal principles' of paediatric nursing have been advocated and operationalized with little or no attempt made to understand what living-in is like for either parents or for the nurses who work with them. It is proposed that research approaches in this area are required which are more hermeneutic and dialogic.