1 Foundations of Family-Centered Pediatric Care Free Online FlashCards

What are the four guiding principles of family-centered care?

Respect and dignity, information sharing, participation, and collaboration.

What knowledge can families contribute to a child’s care?

Families know a child’s usual behavior, needs, strengths, and responses to treatment. Their role is partnership, not replacing the child’s voice or the clinician’s responsibility for safe care.

What does cultural humility involve in pediatric care?

Reflect on personal assumptions, ask respectful questions, and treat each family as the authority on its own preferences. Do not assume that one person speaks for everyone.

How should clinicians support families who need language assistance?

Use a qualified medical interpreter for important clinical information. Speak to the patient and caregiver, not only to the interpreter, and pause to allow accurate interpretation.

How should clinicians adapt explanations for children?

Use short, concrete sentences and familiar words suited to the child’s developmental level, attention, and experience. Visual aids or play may help.

How should clinicians involve adolescents in care?

Include adolescents as active participants and discuss privacy and confidentiality within applicable law and safety limits.

How should clinicians describe a procedure that may hurt?

Be honest about what a procedure may feel like. Avoid promising that it will not hurt when discomfort is possible.

What does teach-back assess?

Teach-back checks whether the clinician explained instructions clearly by asking the family to describe how they will follow them. It evaluates the explanation, not the family’s intelligence.

What should happen when a guardian gives permission for routine care?

For many routine decisions, a parent or legal guardian gives permission when a child cannot legally consent. The clinician explains the proposed care, expected benefits, material risks, and alternatives, and allows questions.

What is assent in pediatric care?

Assent is a child’s developmentally appropriate agreement to care after an understandable explanation. It is an ethical process of engaging the child, not simply obtaining a signature.

How should clinicians respond to a child’s dissent?

A child’s dissent deserves serious attention, but it does not always determine the final decision. Listen to concerns and respond to them.

Should necessary emergency care wait if a guardian cannot be reached?

In an urgent emergency, necessary evaluation or treatment to prevent serious harm should not be delayed solely because a parent or guardian cannot be reached.