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ABSTRACT
Purpose: Children’s perspectives in the context of health service delivery have historically been seen as unimportant. They have been viewed as unintelligent, unable to effectively share or tell of their experiences or fully participate in their care, potentially resulting in a sense of dehumanisation.
Method: The present paper illustrates children’s experiences when undergoing medical procedures, using application of the eight dimensions of humanised care theoretical framework.
Results: Findings from six published papers were reflectively interrogated to identify implicit findings related to the dimensions of humanised care. These implicit findings show ways of caring for childrenwhichcan lead to enhanced human sensitivity in care or conversely where the dimensions of being human are obscured to greater or lesser degrees and can result in forms of dehumanisation.
Conclusions: Inadvertent dehumanising features of practice can be mediated by encouraging the inclusion of children’s own lifeworld perspective and make room for their voices in both care and research. In this way the present well documented power imbalance could be addressed. Adding the value of the theoretical framework highlights areas of need for young children to be cared for as human beings.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the children and their families who took part in the original studies this paper is based on.
Contribution of the paper statements
What is already known about the topic
Children’s voices in health care are seldom heard in the research literature and their perspective is under-researched
Present care practices such as restraint during medicalprocedures have the potential to dehumanize children
Eight dimensions of humanization have been proposed to highlight humanized practices in care and collectively these offer a conceptual framework to lead practices that may enhance ethically sensitive care
What this paper adds
A focus on the experience and pertinent statements of young children within healthcare
Studies in Swedish paediatric care show how present care practices such as restraint potentially dehumanize children
Application of a humanizing care theoretical framework to underscore the significance of children’s experiences highlights the need for young children to be cared for as human beings if care is to be ethical
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Additional information
Funding
Notes on contributors
Katarina Karlsson
Katarina Karlsson is a Paediatric Nurse, a Primary Health Care Nurse and Phd in Nursing. She is a Senior lecturer and Director of study in Caring Science, at the School of Health Sciences, at the University of Borås, Sweden. Her areas of research and expertise span the lives of young children that experiences different medical procedures, augmentative and alternative communication and children’s rights in health care.
Kathleen Galvin
Kathleen Galvin is an RN and currently a Professor of Nursing Practice at The University of Brighton, UK. She also works as a guest professor at the University of Borås, Sweden within the field of caring science with focus on developing innovations in lifeworld led care. Her work has spanned phenomenology, philosophy, qualitative research, the arts and humanities in health, action research, multiple methods in service evaluation, public and patient involvement and perspectives, and issues in professional education.
Laura Darcy
Laura Darcy is a Paediatric Nurse, Master of Global Public Health and Phd in Health and Caring Science. She is a Senior lecturer in Nursing at The University of Borås, Sweden. Her areas of research and expertise span the lives of young children with long term illness and children’s rights in health care.