Evaluation of a protocol for eliciting narrative accounts of pediatric inpatient experiences of care

A patient- and family-centered approach to health care involves listening to and respecting patients and their families, tailoring care to meet each patient and family’s needs and values, and educating and empowering patients and families so that they have the confidence to participate in the care process to whatever extent they desire.

In this study, HIP Investigator Dr. Rachel Grob along with other authors describes the development of a narrative item set for gathering accounts of pediatric inpatient care experiences and presents data from a rigorous evaluation modeled on an approach used to assess a narrative elicitation protocol for outpatient care. They found that narratives elicited from rigorously designed multi-item sets can provide detailed, substantive information about pediatric inpatient experiences that hospitals could use to improve child and family experiences during pediatric hospitalization, and can add context to closed-ended survey item responses and provide information about experiences of care important to children and families that are not included in quantitative surveys.