Medical personnel attitudes to the stay at hospital of children with their parents

Introduction. The presence of parents at the hospital during their children’s hospitalisation is a phenomenon of the recent years and
exposes the medical personnel at children’s departments to many new organisational challenges. Work at the department shall be organised
such that parents could effectively care of their children and the medical personnel should be able to carry out their tasks. The reconciliation
of the interests of both parties is the condition of good cooperation and makes the interest of the child most important.

Aim. The objective of the paper was to learn the opinion of the medical personnel, and in particular the nurses employed at children’s
wards, about parents’ stay at the hospitals during their children’s hospitalisation; plus learning of the factors that positively and negatively
affect the course of the medical personnel cooperation with the parents of an ill child. Determination what may be changed so that the
cooperation among the ill child, the parents and the medical personnel shall be streamlined.

Material and methods. The research has been carried out at the Children’s Hospital in Bielsko-Biała employing about 85 nurses. 41 nurses
employed at the paediatric, neonatal and children’s laryngology departments took part in the research. Also the opinions of 14 students of
the second year of nursing studies serving their traineeships at the departments have been asked. In the research there has been used
a proprietary questionnaire consisting of open and closed questions.
Conclusions.
1. The contemporary medicine emphasises the necessity of ill children hospitalisation together with their parents.
2. Medical personnel see both the advantages and disadvantages of the parents’ stay at the hospital with their child.
3. The advantages are the openness of the medical personnel to the parents and acceptance by the parents of the principles and rules of
staying at the hospital with their child.
4. The disadvantages are related to the space available at children’s departments and misunderstandings between the personnel and the
parents of an ill child.