Perceived importance of needs expressed by parents of hospitalized two- to six-year-olds.

The study describes the needs of 34 parents, 12 fathers and 22 mothers, of hospitalized 2-6 year-olds in a Pediatric Hospital in Iceland. Subjects responded to 43 statements of possible needs during a child's hospitalization on a Likert-type scale based on their perception of the importance of items. The reliability coefficient was over 0.91 for all three parts of the instrument. Parents' perception of importance was significantly and positively correlated with their perception of how their needs were being met and with their request for help from the hospital to fulfil them. None of the statements were perceived to be unimportant. Items related to parents' need to trust nurses and doctors were consistently rated as very important. Items related to the need for information and needs related to other family members were consistently rated as lying between important and very important. Needs related to human and physical resources, and the need for support and guidance were in general rated lowest. Items related to the need to be trusted had a mean importance significantly (p < 0.01) lower for fathers. Although not exhaustive, the statements presented were found to be representative of the needs and concerns of parents during the hospitalization of their children.