Children and families use urgent and emergency care services frequently, yet we know little about children and their families’ views and experiences during urgent treatment centre visits.
Although national policy and professional guidance emphasise the importance of involving children in decisions about their care, there remains limited evidence about how this involvement is realised in everyday urgent treatment centre practice.
Urgent treatment centres are often characterised by time pressures, high patient volumes, and complex clinical demands. In these contexts, communication frequently takes place primarily with parents or carers, which can limit opportunities for children to express their views or to be directly involved in discussions about their care. This may affect children’s understanding of what is happening, their experiences of urgent care encounters, and their wellbeing, as well as how effectively services respond to their needs.
Improving how children are involved in urgent care has the potential to enhance care experiences for large numbers of families and to support the delivery of more responsive, child-centred, and rights-respecting services.
Project Aims
This doctoral research project aims to understand the experiences of children aged 2–7 years and their families when receiving care within urgent treatment centres.
Objectives:
- To understand children’s and their families’ experiences of the space and environment during their journey through the urgent treatment centre
- To critically examine the triadic interactions between children, their family and healthcare professionals when receiving care in urgent treatment centres
- To explore how contextual and structural factors can influence the experiences of children and their families in urgent care centres
- To examine what influences the involvement of a child in choices and decisions about their care within urgent treatment centres
What is this project doing?
The project includes three connected phases:
- A systematic review of existing research to understand what is already known about children’s and parent’s experiences in walk in urgent care settings: PROSPERO
- Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE), with children and parents contributing throughout the project. A Children’s Research Group (CRAG) has been developed for the project and a local parent group have been consulted.
- A critical ethnographic study in an urgent treatment centre, including:
- Observing children’s journeys through an urgent treatment centre
- Walking interviews with children and parents
- Short interviews with healthcare staff
- Use of child-friendly tools to support children to share their views
Anticipated outputs
Findings from this research project will be disseminated through academic conferences and reports aimed at policy makers and organisations. Results from the systematic review, qualitative study, and patient and public involvement (PPI) activities will be submitted to appropriate peer-reviewed journals. The Children’s Research Advisory Group (CRAG) and parent group will be actively involved throughout the development of dissemination outputs and will contribute to the co-production of accessible, public-facing information about the project and its findings.
Collaborators
Director of studies – Dr Martha Paisi
Supervisor – Professor Sarah Neill
Supervisor – Professor Lucy Bray
Project specific – Children’s Research Advisory group (CRAG) and parent group