Family caregiver perspectives on strengths and challenges in the care of pediatric injury patients at a tertiary referral hospital in Northern Tanzania.

Abstract

Background

Pediatric injuries are a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). It is important that injured children get quality care in order to improve their outcomes. Injured children are nearly always accompanied by family member caregivers invested in their outcome, and who will be responsible for their recovery and rehabilitation after discharge.

Objective

The purpose of this study was to identify family member caregiver perspectives on strengths and challenges in pediatric injury care throughout hospitalization at a tertiary hospital in Northern Tanzania.

Methods

This study was conducted at a zonal referral hospital in Northern Tanzania. Qualitative semi-structured in-depth interviews (IDIs) were conducted by trained interviewers who were fluent in English and Swahili in order to examine the strengths and challenges in pediatric injury care. IDIs were completed from November 2020 to October 2021 with 30 family member caregivers of admitted pediatric injured patients. De-identified transcripts were synthesized in memos and analyzed through a team-based, thematic approach informed by applied thematic analysis.

Results

Strengths and challenges were identified throughout the hospital experience, including emergency medicine department (EMD) care, inpatient wards care, and discharge. Across the three phases, strengths were identified such as how quickly patients were evaluated and treated, professionalism and communication between healthcare providers, attentive nursing care, frequent re-evaluation of a patient's condition, and open discussion with caregivers about readiness for discharge. Challenges identified related to lack of communication with caregivers, perceived inability of caregivers to ask questions, healthcare providers speaking in English during rounds with lack of interpretation into the caregivers' preferred language, and being sent home without instructions for rehabilitation, ongoing care, or guidance for follow-up.

Conclusion

Caregiver perspectives highlighted strengths and challenges throughout the hospital experience that could lead to interventions to improve the care of pediatric injury patients in Northern Tanzania. These interventions include prioritizing communication with caregivers about patient status and care plan, ensuring all direct communication is in the caregivers' preferred language, and standardizing instructions regarding discharge and follow-up.

Department

Description

Provenance

Citation

Published Version (Please cite this version)

10.1371/journal.pone.0286836

Publication Info

Keating, Elizabeth M, Francis Sakita, Maddy Vonderohe, Getrude Nkini, Ismail Amiri, Kelly Loutzenheiser, Bryan Young, Sharla Rent, et al. (2023). Family caregiver perspectives on strengths and challenges in the care of pediatric injury patients at a tertiary referral hospital in Northern Tanzania. PloS one, 18(12). p. e0286836. 10.1371/journal.pone.0286836 Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/30661.

This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.

Scholars@Duke

Rent

Sharla Marie Rent

Assistant Professor of Pediatrics

Sharla Rent is a neonatologist and an affiliate of the Duke Global Health Institute. Her research focuses on perinatal bereavement, stigma surrounding stillbirth or neonatal death, neonatal resuscitation in low-resource settings, and database analysis of perinatal outcomes.

Staton

Catherine Ann Staton

Professor of Emergency Medicine

Catherine Staton MD MSc

Dr. Staton is an Associate Professor in Emergency Medicine (EM), Neurosurgery & Global Health with tenure at Duke University. She is the Director of the GEMINI (Global EM Innovation & Implementation) Research Center and the EM Vice Chair of Research Strategy & Faculty Development. Her research integrates innovative implementation methods into health systems globally to improve access to acute care. In 2012, with an injury registry at Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center, Tanzania Dr. Staton demonstrated 30% of injury patients had at risk alcohol use, providing preliminary data for a K01/Career Development Award. Her K01 award adapted a brief alcohol intervention to the KCMC ED and Swahili and is now being trialed in an NIAAA funded R01 pragmatic adaptive clinical trial. Dr. Staton and her mentor and collaborator Dr. Mmbaga are co-PD of the “The TReCK Program: Trauma Research Capacity Building in Kilimanjaro” to train 12 masters and doctoral learners to conduct innovative implementation and data science projects to improve care for injury patients. Currently, Dr. Staton and GEMINI partners with over a dozen faculty from over 6 low- and middle-income countries to conduct research, has mentored over 150 learners from undergraduate to post-doctoral levels from high, middle and low- income settings and has over 130 manuscripts.

Blandina Mmbaga

Adjunct Associate Professor of Global Health

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