title: Effect of having siblings in the exam room on parents' retention of clinicians' instructions.
abstract: This study investigates the effect of siblings in the examining room on a parent's ability to learn and retain instructions for the care of a sick child. A sample of 49 parents was randomly divided into experimental (E) and control (C) groups. The E parents brought only their sick child into the examining room, while their well children were kept in a supervised waiting room. The C parents brought their well children along with their sick child into the examining room. In all cases, the sick child had either an upper-respiratory infection or an ear infection requiring antibiotics. Instructions to parents dealt with antibiotic treatment and care of the sick child. Each subject took one pretest and two post-tests. Post-test one, given at the conclusion of instruction, measured learning. Post-test two, given two weeks later, measured retention. Results showed that there were no significant learning differences between the groups, but that the E-group parents retained significantly more of the practioner's instructions than the C-group parents.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nursing, California State University, Long Beach.
authors.forename: L M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Huckabay
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004521:Educational Measurement; D006801:Humans; D009722:Nurse Practitioners / Q000592:standards*; D015403:Nursing Evaluation Research; D010290:Parents / Q000193:education* / Q000523:psychology; D010371:Pediatric Nursing / Q000592:standards*; D012801:Sibling Relations