Table 4 Qualitative findings
From: Pediatric nurses in pediatricians’ offices: a survey for primary care pediatricians
Categories | Sub-categories | Verbatim data extracts |
|---|---|---|
Clinical assessment of the child/adolescent | Health assessment | Speak to the parents before performing the child’s periodic health assessment |
Anamnesis and triage | Adequately trained nurses are […] on the lookout for risky situations […] that often very busy pediatricians may underestimate | |
Specific diagnostic tests | Perform some diagnostic tests that require specific professional competencies (electrocardiogram, spirometry, prick test) | |
Patient and/or parent education | Health promotion | Collaborate with pediatricians in providing health education, such as correct lifestyle habits |
Relationship with child/adolescent and family | Listening to adolescents without parents, to try to develop an empathic relationship and encourage dialogue | |
Web use | Recommend [the best] science websites | |
Professional integration | Team value | Nursing staff constitutes a unique and indispensable added value |
Professional borders | Recognize professional autonomy as synergistic to that of the pediatrician, but each with their own specificities | |
Improving the quality of care | Organizational changes and the sharing of clinical-healthcare activities have enabled to significantly improve the quality of care | |
Useful only to assist with vaccinations | Nurses are useful only when pediatricians administer vaccines | |
Sustainability | Unsustainable costs | We had to give up despite the precious help, because the costs incurred were no longer sustainable |
Medical and legal issues | More procedures regarding safety at work are needed: more hours of training, occupational medicine examinations, extra costs for the employer | |
Dedicated spaces for nursing activities | The main problem I notice is finding a dedicated space for nurses to perform their activities. | |
Secretarial support | I have had an office assistant for 18 years. She is not a nurse but a secretary with nursing skills who helps me with total commitment. | |
Professional education | Graduate or post-graduate university degree. | Specific pediatric specialization after the nursing bachelor’s degree, maybe with an evidence-based nursing course and a mandatory internship in the pediatrician’s office. |
Clinical placements | It would be useful to arrange placements for nursing students at the pediatrician’s office. | |
Specific continuing education | Conferences and educational sessions dedicated to specific and general topics focusing on the collaboration between pediatricians, nurses and families | |
Shared education | Specific nature of the activities performed in the pediatrician’s office, which requires collaborative training | |
Clinical assessment/ counselling / organizational topics | Counselling, parenting support, telephone triage, screening, vaccinations, psychomotor development of the child |