How Do Cultural Factors in the New Zealand Context, Impact on the Delivery of Family Centred Care in an Acute Paediatric Setting?

Abstract

Family-centred care (FCC) is widely accepted as the preferred method for providing comprehensive and compassionate care for children, young people, and their families and underpins practice values at Kidz First Children's Hospital. Currently, no guidelines, policies, or foundational documents on FCC are available. Therefore, inconsistency is evident in implementing FCC principles. Establishing an FCC charter is an objective of Kidz First Children's Hospital as the organisation recognises its importance in delivering exceptional, safe, and culturally sensitive care for this diverse population. This practice project aimed at identifying the cultural factors that impact and influence family-centred care at Kidz First Hospital. The findings from this project will provide recommendations for action that will inform the development of the FCC charter. The practice project was conducted in two phases; the first phase was a review of literature that followed a moderated version of Arksey and O Malley's (2005) scoping review format. The second phase consisted of a Kidzfirst service environmental evaluation and the development stages of a FCC questionnaire.

The primary findings from the literature review highlighted key elements that contributed to a culturally safe family-centred care context, and these were ‘Respect and Dignity’, ‘Participation’ and ‘Collaboration’. The environmental audit revealed that Kidzfirst is providing some aspects of care that are in keeping with a FCC model but that there is room for improvement with many aspects and key recommendations identify areas for improvement. Overall, the findings from this practice project, highlight the essential nature of the elements in FCC in the New Zealand context, emphasising the significance of family and culture in a child's life, the imperative of establishing a trusting relationship and promoting a collaborative approach to care coordination and decision-making in a culturally sensitive way.