Abstract
OBJECTIVE
To analyze the perception of health professionals and companions/family about the development of communication for patient safety in pediatric hospitalizations.
METHOD
It is an exploratory-descriptive study with a qualitative approach, performed in pediatric clinical-surgical hospitalization units of three hospitals in Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil. 44 health professionals and 94 companions of hospitalized children participated in the study, to a total of 138 participants. Data collection took place between 2016 and 2017, through semi-structured interviews. A thematic content analysis was used.
RESULTS
Two categories emerged: "Barriers to an effective communication", addressing the failures and difficulties in the communication process and "Tools to improve communication", that present recommendations for improvements, especially instrumentalization of the companion/family member.
CONCLUSIONS
The barriers to an effective communication involve several factors, and effective communication strategies can assist in the development of improvements for pediatric patient safety.
Keywords:
Patient safety; Pediatric nursing; Child, hospitalized; Health communication