Parents' involvement in distressing procedures

Parents experiences of administering painful and invasive nursing procedures as part of caring for their ill child at home.
Sometimes caring for a child with a long-term health condition requires parents to undertake responsibility for carrying out painful and/or invasive health or nursing procedures. These procedures could include, for example, passing nasogastric tubes, giving injections, or anal irrigation.

We know very little about parents’ experiences of taking on this responsibility and carrying out these procedures on a routine basis. It is important to understand this, and how parents want to be supported when faced with this responsibility.

Aim: The purpose of this study is to explore and better understand these issues.