Abstract
The engagement of families in health maintenance is associated with better child health outcomes, but demographic discordance between families and clinicians may be a barrier to family engagement. Using a longitudinal qualitative study design, we conducted 15 semi-structured interviews with five pediatric residents who elected to facilitate group well child care (GWCC). Four themes describing residents’ perceptions of the role of discordance in family-clinician engagement include: 1) discordance was not a barrier; 2) discordance leads to a lack of engagement and trust; 3) residents transcended discordance in GWCC because either GWCC led residents to change their communication techniques or because, with GWCC, parents have concordant adults in the room; and 4) the education residents obtained in GWCC allowed them to empathize with the families’ health-related decisions. Finding ways in which pediatric providers can improve skills in family engagement may be an important step in decreasing health inequities.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 1033-1045 |
Number of pages | 13 |
Journal | Journal of health care for the poor and underserved |
Volume | 27 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Aug 2016 |
Keywords
- Child health
- Discordance
- Engagement
- Group health visits
- Health maintenance
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health