A taxonomy to assess the interaction between nurses and children: Development and reliability

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to develop a valid and reliable instrument to assess the nurse-child interaction during medical or nursing interventions.

BACKGROUND: Communication is an important competency for the professional practice of nurses and physicians. The nurse-patient relationship is fundamental for high-quality care. It has been suggested that if nurses have more skills to interact with children, care will be less distressing and less painful for the children.

DESIGN: A qualitative observational psychometric study; the GRRAS checklist was used.

METHODS: In-depth video-analyses, taxonomy development (19 videos) and testing it is psychometric properties (10 videos). Three observers micro-analysed video recordings of experienced nurses changing children's wound dressing in a specialised Burn Centre.

RESULTS: The nurse-child interaction taxonomy (NCIT) was developed to observe and score the interactional behaviour between nurse and child. The taxonomy has three main patterns: being considerate, attuning oneself, and procedural interventions, subdivided in eight dimensions. These dimensions contain 16 elements that can be observed and scored on a 7-point scale. Intra-rater, inter-rater reliability and agreement were good.

CONCLUSIONS: This study shows that interaction between nurses and children can be assessed reliably with the NCIT by an experienced observer or alternatively, scoring by two observers is recommended.

RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: The development of the taxonomy is an important step to find evidence for the best way for nurses to interact with children during nursing interventions or medical events and as such, ultimately, contributes to providing the best care possible.