Chinese nurses' perspectives on child-friendly healthcare practice assessment: a qualitative study

BACKGROUND: Nurses play a critical role in the implementation of child-friendly healthcare, ensuring that pediatric patients receive comprehensive and compassionate services. However, there is a global scarcity of research evaluating nurses' practices in delivering child-friendly healthcare. Therefore, this study focuses on exploring the assessment of child-friendly healthcare practices from the perspective of nurses themselves.

METHOD: This descriptive qualitative study employed purposive and snowball sampling methods to recruit 14 pediatric nurses from six hospitals in Zhejiang province, Southeast China. Individual semi-structured interviews were conducted face-to-face between January and June 2024. Data were analyzed through the qualitative content analysis approach.

RESULTS: We identified 415 unique meaning units in the interview data, 332 of which were related to child-friendly healthcare practice assessment. These units were classified into 58 codes across 4 categories and 17 subcategories. The four categories were identified: services designed for children's interests, tailoring the environment adapted for children, facilitating social interactions, and promoting childhood development.

CONCLUSION: The findings from this study were derived from the perspectives of Chinese nurses on child-friendly healthcare practice assessment, offering a comprehensive and multidimensional view of this field. The results reflect the current state and future direction of child-friendly healthcare in China, which will aid in sustaining the development of a child-friendly healthcare evaluation system.