Family-centered care: Do we practice what we preach?

Objective: To determine nurses' perceptions and practices of identified elements of family-centered care. Design: Descriptive. Setting: Neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), pediatrics, and pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) in an acute care hospital. Participants: Sixty-two licensed nurses, 37 working in the NICU and 25 working in pediatrics or the PICU. Main Outcome Measures: Scores for the Necessary and Current scales of the Family-Centered Care Questionnaire. Results: Scores representing current nursing practice of family-centered care were significantly lower than those representing its necessity (p =.000). Nurses with 10 years or fewer of neonatal or pediatric experience scored significantly higher on both the total Necessary Scale (p =.02) and total Current Scale (p =.017) than did those with I I years or more. Nurses who work in the NICU scored significantly lower on the total Necessary Scale (p =.013) than did nurses who work in pediatrics or PICU. Conclusions: Although nurses agree the identified elements of family-centered care are necessary, they do not consistently apply those elements in their everyday practice. Years of experience and clinical work setting influenced both perceptions and practices of family-centered care.