‘If I didn’t trust Swedish Healthcare Direct, I would never call’ – views of making pediatric health calls

Abstract

The focus of the presented research is parents’ expectations and experiences of calling Swedish Healthcare Direct (SHD)regarding pediatric health issues. Telenursing is a rapidly expanding service and SHD handles up to 2.4 million pediatrichealth calls yearly. Mothers make the majority of the calls and reportedly receive self-care advice more than fathers.Parents’ views are important for the development and safe use of telenursing health services. The study is qualitative, withan exploratory and descriptive design. Twenty-one interviews with parents were analysed using content analysis.According to the interviewees, the decision to contact SHD or not is influenced by their degree of worry or trust in theservice. Calls are carefully prepared, and who will call is often predetermined and affected by gender. Parents want to begiven a chance to speak first in their communication with telenurses. They want to be listened to carefully and to beaccorded respect, to have their needs fully explored and to have their concerns relieved. Most parents follow telenurses’recommendations, a few exclusively. Some primarily trust their own intuition. Learning is frequent, implying the publichealth potential of calls, not least for foreign-born callers. Exploring parents’ expectations provides insight into parents’worries, potential to increase parents’ learning and may develop their trust in telenurses’ recommendations. Telenurses’awareness of gender impact can further develop the telenursing health service in providing safe care on equal terms for avulnerable patient group, children.