In this editorial, I would like to propose a new paediatric model of care that could be developed and utilised in practice. I recently presented about the history, development and relevance of family centered care (FCC) and child centered care (CCC) to the paediatric staff at Christchurch Hospital. The following is a summary of my presentation.
Family centered care is a model where care delivery is centered on the whole family, not just the ill child and includes a partnership approach through negotiation, trust, respect and building therapeutic relationships between staff, parents and children (Shields, Pratt, Davis, & Hunter, 2007). Despite fifty years of ongoing research, education and theory into the development, translation and impact of FCC there continues to be difficulties in effectively operationalising this model of care within paediatrics for staff, parents and children.
Educational facilities, healthcare institutions and clinicians appear to use a mix of theoretical perspectives to inform family nursing that are contextually or personally driven (Bell 2013). Wright and Leahey (1990) refer to family nursing as the 'family as context' approach where the individual is forefront and the family is situated in the background. Shields (2010) refers to FCC within paediatrics as care provision that includes the whole family. Carter, Bray, Dickinson, Edwards and Ford (2014) refers to CCC as the child being forefront and visible within a FCC model where children's needs and interests are at the centre of one's thinking and practice.
Debates over rethinking and questioning the concepts that underpin FCC and whether FCC is an appropriate attainable model of care within paediatrics continues (Foster, Whitehead, & Maybee, 2010). Theorists and clinicians suggest developing paediatric nursing frameworks, practice models, interventions and strategies to support the key principles of FCC (Coyne, Murphy, Costello, O'Neill, & Donnellan, 2013). International institutes, institutional endorsements, governmental policies and directives are further vehicles used to support FCC practice (Shields, 2010). Nursing experts propose that through increased self-awareness, cultural sensitivity, safety and knowledge of the power differences and...