Parent and health care professional perspectives on family-centered care for children with special health care needs: are we on the same page?

A family-centered approach to health care for children with special health care needs (CSHCN) is widely acknowledged as the ideal model of service delivery, but less is known about the actual practice of family-centered care (FCC), especially from the viewpoints of parents and health care professionals. This cross-sectional research compared parent and health care professional perspectives on the degree to which FCC is being provided at a large, urban hospital in the United States. The Measure of Process of Care (MPOC) was administered to a representative sample of 92 parents of CSHCN; a convenience sample of 43 health care professionals completed the service provider version of the MPOC. A mixed-model analysis of variance was conducted to test for group differences on matched domain scores of the MPOC. No significant differences emerged between the two stakeholder groups, but significant differences were detected among the four domain scores. The data suggest that health professionals are generally meeting families' needs for specific communication and are respectful of parents' expertise. However, parents and professionals alike indicated the need for continued professional growth in the area of providing holistic, comprehensive services to advance FCC.