Understanding the service-user’s perspective

The mothers’ distress and anxiety appears to have been underestimated by the nurses, who were concerned mainly with technical and safety issues. Further support for, and provision of information to, parents may improve their care experiences. When considering ways to improve hospital experiences for children and families, nurses should consider the service-user perspective as well as the clinical perspective. In particular, nurses should understand the psychological effects on mothers of seeing their infants receive oxygen therapy for bronchiolitis. The Leading Change, Adding Value (NHS England 2016) framework, which is linked to the NHS strategy Five Year Forward View, focuses on providing better outcomes, better experiences and better use of resources in care. Children’s nurses can refer to the new framework in practice as they look for ways to provide children and families with better experiences of hospital care.