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ISSUES AND PURPOSE. The purpose of this study was to investigate the development of trust in parents of hospitalized children.
METHODS. Using grounded theory, semistructured interviews were conducted with 15 parents of children previously hospitalized, focusing on parents' experiences during their child's hospitalization. Data were analyzed using a constant comparative process. Themes and the core variable were identified and a model of trust developed.
RESULTS. The core variable related to the development of trust in healthcare providers was whether parents' expectations for care were met. Thematic areas that influenced whether expectations for care were met included preexisting trust; evaluation of care, including evaluation of technical skills and the meeting of parental and child needs; and behaviors of nurses and other healthcare providers that inhibited and fostered trust.
PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS. Strategies to enhance trust are discussed.
Search terms: Hospitalized child, parents, trust
The establishment of a trusting relationship with the patient is a key therapeutic intervention for the nurse. Because the family plays a critical role in the social support of the patient, it also is important that this trusting relationship be extended to include family members, particularly when the patient is too ill or too young to actively participate in such a relationship. An understanding of factors that can facilitate or inhibit the development of trust is important to the establishment and maintenance of therapeutic relationships with families.
Nurses need an understanding of ways to promote trust in the families of their patients. The actual meaning of trust for patients and their families, however, remains elusive. One clarified definition of trust developed by Hupcey and colleagues is that trust is the dependence on another person based on the congruence between the expected and actual behaviors of the trusted person (Hupcey, Penrod, & Morse, 2000; Hupcey, Penrod, Morse, & Mitcham, 2001). Hupcey (1998) discusses trust within the context of the nurse-family relationship in relation to the families of adults in the intensive care unit (ICU), but factors related to the development of trust in the parents of hospitalized children have not been explored. This study was conducted to address this void by interviewing parents of children who were patients in a tertiary care hospital to investigate the development of parental trust in the nurses caring...