title: "What would you do if this were your child?": practitioners' responses during enacted conversations in the United States.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To explore how practitioners in the United States respond to the question "What would you do if this were your child?" during realistic enactments with professional actors.
  
  
  METHODS
  Descriptive study of realistic pediatric critical care enactments.
  
  
  METHODS
  Pediatric critical care.
  
  
  METHODS
  Interprofessional practitioners who enrolled in the Program to Enhance Relational and Communication Skills at Children's Hospital Boston and engaged in realistic simulated enactments.
  
  
  METHODS
  During the Program to Enhance Relational and Communication Skills workshops, practitioners met with parent-actors faced with life-support decisions for their 5-yr-old son who had suffered a near-drowning incident. Parent-actors were directed to naturally pose the question, "What would you do if this were your child?" The enactments were videotaped and practitioners' verbal responses to the question were qualitatively analyzed using content analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  From 2003 to 2008, we offered 20 Program to Enhance Relational and Communication Skills workshops and analyzed 20 realistic enactments during which interprofessional teams engaged in conversations about life-support decisions with parent-actors. In 50% of the meetings, the physician responded to the question, in 25% both the physician and the nurse or social worker, in 20% the nurse, and in 5% the physical therapist. The content of practitioners' responses yielded six themes: acknowledgment; discomfort and/or reluctance; values and decision-making approaches; focus on medical information; emotional and practical support; and personal response and self-disclosure. Eighty percent of practitioners' responses included more than one theme.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Practitioners demonstrated a wide repertoire of responses that varied in their degree of relational engagement and responsiveness. Future research should explore parents' perspectives and preferences regarding such communication to further refine recommendations and educational experiences.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anaethesia, Institute for Professionalism & Ethical Practice, Children's Hospital Boston, Boston, MA, USA. elaine.meyer@childrens.harvard.edu
authors.forename: Elaine C
authors.initials: EC
authors.lastname: Meyer
authors.forename: Giulia
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lamiani
authors.forename: Marjorie Rosenthal
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Foer
authors.forename: Robert D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Truog
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003142:Communication; D003657:Decision Making; D004502:Education, Medical, Continuing; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015278:Intensive Care Units, Pediatric; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009726:Nurses / Q000523:psychology; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology; D010348:Patient Care Team; D016544:Patient Simulation; D059825:Physical Therapists / Q000523:psychology; D010820:Physicians / Q000523:psychology; D018794:Problem-Based Learning; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations; D012947:Social Work; D014481:United States; D028761:Withholding Treatment; D055815:Young Adult