Afraid in the hospital: parental concern for errors during a child's hospitalization.
OBJECTIVE
(1) To determine the proportion of parents concerned about medical errors during a child's hospitalization; and (2) the association between this concern and parental self-efficacy with physician interactions.


METHODS
Cross-sectional survey.


METHODS
Tertiary care children's hospital.


METHODS
Parents of children admitted to the general medical service.


METHODS
Parental concern about medical errors.


METHODS
: Parents were asked their agreement with the statement "When my child is in the hospital I feel that I have to watch over the care that he/she is receiving to make sure that mistakes aren't made." We used multivariate logistic regression to examine the association between parents' self-efficacy with physician interactions and the need "to watch over a child's care," adjusting for parent and child demographics, English proficiency, past hospitalization, and social desirability bias.


RESULTS
Of 278 eligible parents, 130 completed surveys and 63% reported the need to watch over their child's care to ensure that mistakes were not made. Parents with greater self-efficacy with physician interactions were less likely to report this need (odds ratio [OR], 0.83; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.72-0.92). All parents who were "very uncomfortable" communicating with doctors in English reported the need to watch over their child's care to prevent mistakes.


CONCLUSIONS
Nearly two-thirds of surveyed parents felt the need to watch over their child's hospital care to prevent mistakes. Parents with greater self-efficacy with physician interactions were less likely to report the need to watch over their child's care while parents with lower English proficiency were more likely to report this need.
Tarini
Beth A
BA
Division of General Pediatrics and Child Health Evaluation and Research Unit (CHEAR), University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-0456, USA. btarini@umich.edu
Lozano
Paula
P
Christakis
Dimitri A
DA
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002673:Child, Hospitalized; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003710:Demography; D005260:Female; D006776:Hospitals, Pediatric; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D019300:Medical Errors; D008875:Middle Aged; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D020377:Self Efficacy; D055815:Young Adult