Adolescents on an inpatient unit and their healthcare providers: what’s working and what’s not
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Alon Coret
,
Dennis Newhook
Abstract
Objectives
Adolescents admitted to hospital can face unique medical and psychosocial challenges, and may be treated by healthcare providers who do not recognize or adequately address these needs. Our goal was to better understand the experiences of both patients and providers at a local level.
Methods
We designed a cross-sectional survey-based study of two participant groups: (1) adolescent patients (aged 10–19) admitted to general medical wards at a tertiary pediatric hospital and (2) pediatric healthcare providers representing multiple disciplines.
Results
A total of 65 individuals participated: 25 adolescents (mean age 14.6; range 11–17) and 40 multidisciplinary healthcare providers. Most adolescents reported being treated respectfully (88 %) and taken seriously (92 %) by their providers. Several identified structure and routine, a break from daily stressors, and quality time with loved ones as positive aspects to hospitalization, while the use of correct gender pronouns, privacy, and age-appropriate leisure activities were cited areas for improvement. The majority of providers reported enjoying caring for adolescents (82 %) and forging therapeutic connections with them (87 %). Several areas of discomfort were noted, including gender and sexuality, substance use, and suicidality. Identified care gaps included inadequate training/education, suboptimal ward environments, and lack of community resources.
Conclusions
Hospitals should recognize adolescent patients’ needs for privacy, youth-centered communication, and developmentally-appropriate spaces. Pediatric healthcare professionals generally enjoy providing care to adolescents in the in-patient setting, however, often have insufficient training in addressing adolescent-specific health and psychosocial issues.
Acknowledgments
Dr. Richard Webster (CHEO Research Institute) – for initial assistance with study design and instrument development. CHEO Youth Forum – for feedback and piloting of the adolescent instrument. CHEO Patient and Family Advisory Committee – for their feedback on study design and instruments. The adolescents and healthcare providers who participated in the study and provided critical insights and perspectives – thank you.
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Research ethics: This study was approved by the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Ethics Board (20/71X). Informed consent was obtained from adolescents who were able to demonstrate capacity to participate, and in accordance with Canada’s Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans – TCPS 2 (2018). Parental consent for minors’ participation was not required/obtained, per institutional protocol and national guidelines. This study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki (as revised in 2013).
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Informed consent: Informed consent was obtained from all individuals included in this study.
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Author contributions: The authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this manuscript and approved its submission. AC and MEH conceptualized the initial study and its design, with methodological input in instrument development provided by DN. AC conducted patient recruitment and descriptive statistical analyses. Content analysis was done collaboratively by all three authors. AC drafted the initial manuscript, with substantial input and revisions provided by both DN and MEH.
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Competing interests: The authors state no conflict of interest.
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Research funding: None declared.
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Data availability: The raw data can be obtained on request from the corresponding author.
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Supplementary Material
This article contains supplementary material (https://doi.org/10.1515/ijamh-2023-0151).
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Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Reviews
- Efficacy of behavioral interventions to increase engagement in sexual health services among LatinX youth in the United States: A meta-analysis for post-pandemic implications
- Electronic nicotine delivery system: a narrative review on growing threat to tobacco control and health of the young Indian population
- Original Articles
- Mindful awareness and resilience skills for adolescents (MARS-A): a mixed-methods study of a mindfulness-based intervention for a heterogeneous adolescent clinical population
- Adolescent health care and perceptions in a provincial hospital in Papua New Guinea
- Adolescents on an inpatient unit and their healthcare providers: what’s working and what’s not
- Adolescent and young adult long-acting reversible contraception post-insertion visit attendance before and after COVID-19
- Knowledge and beliefs of Greek parents towards HPV infection and vaccination – are they willing to vaccinate their sons?
- Prevalence and correlates of unintentional nonfatal injuries among school-going adolescents in Central America
- Prevention starts here: effectiveness of substance abuse prevention module among adolescent students in Bengaluru – a quasi experimental study
- Association of tobacco experimentation with anxiety and depression: findings from a representative sample of Tunisian adolescents
- Knowledge of smoking and influencing factors among school-going adolescents in Timor-Leste
- Tobacco use and oral health related quality of life among Indian adolescents
