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The perspectives of parents, general practitioners, and community pharmacists about treating an ill child in primary care: a comparative study

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Abstract

As children are unable to make health-related decisions themselves, parents play a central role in consultations with healthcare providers. Parents’ perspectives are therefore the focus of this study. Our first aim was to determine parents’ expectations of a healthcare visit with a general practitioner and a community pharmacist. The second aim was to determine the general practitioners’ and community pharmacists’ perspectives about consultations with children. An observational cross-sectional study was conducted in April and May 2018. We developed three questionnaires: one for parents, one for general practitioners, and one for community pharmacists. The questionnaire for parents was only available through an online platform. The healthcare providers were questioned face-to-face and through an online platform. The study included 380 respondents. Parents considered prescribing or proposing medication the least important action by a general practitioner or community pharmacist, respectively. As well, parents expect information in most cases from both healthcare providers. The questionnaire for general practitioners and community pharmacists revealed that prescribing or proposing medication was regarded the least important action.

Conclusion: Considering parents’ expectations for a consultation with a general practitioner or community pharmacist, there is a substantial resemblance with the healthcare providers’ perspective.

What is Known:

• The previous studies focusing on parents’ perspectives were carried out in a hospital setting or focused on a specific disorder.

• Parents consider reassurance and advice from their general practitioner to be very important; the treatment is considered less important.

What is New:

• Parents considered for both general practitioners’ and community pharmacists’ verbal information, answers to their questions, and reassurance as more important than receiving pharmacological treatment, while general practitioners and community pharmacists consider prescribing/proposing medication and providing written information as less important.

• The expectations of the different groups (parents in relation to not only the healthcare providers but also the general practitioners and community pharmacists compared to each other) know a great resemblance.

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Abbreviations

CP:

Community pharmacist

FTE:

Full-time equivalents

GP:

General practitioner

MD:

Mean difference

PTA:

Pharmaceutical technical assistant

QI:

Quality indicator

STROBE:

Strengthening the reporting of observational studies in epidemiology

WHAM:

Who–how (long)–action–medication

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Pharmaceutical Care Unit, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

    Sigrid Verhelst, Koen Boussery & Eline Tommelein

  2. Department of Pediatrics and Medical Genetics, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

    Pauline De Bruyne & Myriam Van Winckel

  3. MediCourse, Education and Research Centre for Multidisciplinary Care, Hutsepotstraat 25, 9052, Zwijnaarde, Belgium

    Eline Tommelein

Authors
  1. Sigrid Verhelst
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  2. Pauline De Bruyne
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  3. Myriam Van Winckel
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  4. Koen Boussery
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  5. Eline Tommelein
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Contributions

SV conducted the study, data-analysis and interpretation of findings and drafted the manuscript.

ET helped to design and to coordinate the study and the data-analysis and reviewed the manuscript.

KB coordinated the study and reviewed the manuscript.

PDB helped to design the study and reviewed the manuscript.

MVW reviewed the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sigrid Verhelst.

Ethics declarations

The study was collaboratively developed by a pharmacist and a pediatrician and approved by the Ethics Committee of the Ghent University Hospital (B670201836025).

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Additional information

Communicated by Mario Bianchetti

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Verhelst, S., De Bruyne, P., Van Winckel, M. et al. The perspectives of parents, general practitioners, and community pharmacists about treating an ill child in primary care: a comparative study. Eur J Pediatr 179, 111–119 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00431-019-03476-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00431-019-03476-8

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