Diverse Parents’ Experiences of Medical Care of Their Children With Serious Medical Conditions

Michael E. Johansen

doi:10.1370/afm.3127

Annals of Family Medicine encourages readers to develop a learning community to improve health and health care through enhanced primary care. With the Annals Journal Club, we encourage diverse participants—particularly among students, trainees, residents, and interns—to think critically about and discuss important issues affecting primary care, and even consider how their discussions might inform their practice.

HOW IT WORKS

Annals provides discussion tips and questions related to one original research article in each issue. We welcome you to post a summary of your conversation to our eLetters section, a forum for readers to share their responses to Annals articles. Further information and links to previous Annals Journal Club features can be found on our website.

CURRENT SELECTION

Needle J, Lee S, Ahmed A, et al. “We feel alone and not listened to”: parents’ perspectives on pediatric serious illness care in Somali, Hmong, and Latin American communities. Ann Fam Med. 2024;22(3):215-222. 10.1370/afm.3106

Discussion Tips

Primary care clinicians often care for children with serious illness. These interactions can be challenging for a variety of reasons for both parents/families and clinicians, including language and cultural discordance between the family and clinical team. This study group qualitatively investigated ethnically diverse parents’ perspectives with their interactions and experiences in the medical care system.

Discussion Questions

What question is asked by this study and why does it matter?
How would you categorize the research method used by these study authors (quantitative, mixed, or qualitative)?
How does this study advance beyond previous research on this topic?
How strong is the study design for answering the question?
What is community based participatory research? What are some advantages of community based participatory research?
What is immersion/crystallization analysis? What is a participatory approach?
To what degree can the findings be accounted for by:
- ∘ How participants were selected?
- ∘ Location participants were selected from?
- ∘ How the data were collected?
- ∘ The composition of the study team?
- ∘ How the data were analyzed?
What are the main study findings?
How comparable is the study sample to similar patients in your practice or region? What is your judgment about the transportability of the findings?
What contextual factors are important for interpreting the findings?
How might this study change your practice? Policy? Education? Research?
Who are the constituencies for the findings, and how might they be engaged in interpreting or using the findings?
What are the next steps in interpreting or applying the findings?
What researchable questions remain?