Views, expectations and level of satisfaction of parents/guardians regarding paediatric emergency and critical care provided by nurses in the Bamenda health district

Abstract Introduction: Emergency care is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as care for the acutely ill and injured delivered by frontline providers who manage medical, surgical, and obstetric emergencies, relying on early recognition and resuscitation. Paediatric critical care on the other hand consists of identification of children at risk of dying or having adverse outcomes, and in need of intensive monitoring and provision of appropriate interventions. Aim: The main aim of this study was to assess the views, expectations and level of satisfaction of parents/guardians regarding paediatric emergency and critical care provided by nurses in the Bamenda health district. Materials and methods: This study employed a descriptive cross-sectional and analytical design using a mixed method of both descriptive quantitative/qualitative data. Interview and observational guides were used to collect data. The study population included parents of children aged 1 month to below 18 years old admitted in the paediatric intensive care units and/or specialised paediatric wards. Purposive and convenience sampling techniques were used to select the study sites and the sample size of 88 parents. Data was made of categorical and numerical variables, analysed using frequencies, proportions and Multiple Response Analysis to aggregate responses. Results: Majority of the parents 56(63.64%) felt that the child would die because treatment was delayed. Concerning the views of parents on the time nursing care should commence, 56 (63.64%) of the respondents correctly said nursing care to commence immediately on arrival in the hospital. Again, 69 (78.41%) of the 88 respondents expected that the child will get well, 47 (53.41%) preferred nurses to take care of their children reason being that nurses are always with the child at all times as stated by 15 (17.04%). Also, 68(77.287%) were satisfied with nursing care and, a relative majority 27(30.68%) said they were satisfied because they did not wait for long. There was no significant relationship between nurses’ attributes and parental satisfaction except for good reception; x2 = 4.036 and P= 0.045 and giving of complete and detailed information about the child’s progress; x2 =10.571, P= 0.001. Only 3 out of the 30 (10.0%) parents observed were very satisfied with care while 27(90.0%) were either just satisfied or not satisfied with care given. Keywords: Views, expectations, satisfaction, Parents, Paediatric, Emergency, critical Care, nurses