| Negotiation between the family and the nurse in a hospital environment would appear to be an easy notion, but in reality, it is ambiguous and perplexing. The problem is that there is no clearly established and consistent process for the implementation of negotiation between the family and the nurse regarding who provides what care for the child. Pediatric nurses too often assign the total non-medical care of the hospitalized child to the family without discussing with them how involved they would like to be or are able to be. This approach needs to be reconsidered to ensure parent involvement in decision-making and consequently contributing to family-centered care. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a negotiated intervention tool used to determine the desired extent of parental participation. The Roy Adaptation Model conceptual framework was used to guide this study.;The research design was a quantitative, experimental two-group post-test study to test and validate the effectiveness and adequacy of the Negotiated Care Tool (NCT) using three self-report instruments. A convenience sampling of 32 parents were randomly assigned to either the experimental or control group over a three-week period.;The results showed significant improvements and clinical significance in levels of communication, negotiation, and positive adaptations when the nurse implemented the negotiation intervention. The NCT provided a consistent, simple, and effective way for the nurse to implement a negotiation intervention. By implementing this tool, it provided opportunities for the nurse and the family to ask questions, to clarify information, to negotiate the extent to which the family wanted to be involved in their child's care, and to have a clear plan of action. The NCT intervention has demonstrated and validated the potential to improve the family-nurse relationship involving the hospitalized child. |
