"He was not listening to hear me": Parent experiences with communication, inclusion, and marginalization in the pediatric emergency department.

Abstract

Objective: Inequities in pediatric emergency department (ED) care may be influenced by disparities in clinician communication. We sought to examine, from the perspective of parents from marginalized racial and ethnic backgrounds, how clinician-parent communication is characterized during pediatric ED visits.

Methods: We conducted and analyzed in-depth semistructured individual interviews with parents of pediatric ED patients from marginalized racial and ethnic backgrounds. We applied a constant comparative method approach to conduct a thematic analysis informed by grounded theory. To ensure rigor, we collected and analyzed data concurrently. We used the patient-centered communication (PCC) framework and the 10 principles of Public Health Critical Race Praxis as sensitizing constructs during analysis. Two coders followed several analytical steps: (1) open coding for concept discovery, (2) grouping concepts into themes, (3) axial coding to identify thematic properties, and (4) identification of exemplar excerpts for rich description. Thematic saturation was based on repetition, recurrence, and forcefulness.

Results: Nineteen parents participated. Parents described three clinician communicative behaviors that facilitated their sense of inclusion or marginalization: information exchange, empathic communication, and partnership-building. Parents also stressed the importance of their own proactive communication in facilitating their inclusion. Few participants described experiencing racism during their child's ED visit, yet many did during prior health care encounters, which they connected to their current experience. In particular, parents described how their use of proactive communication was motivated by their past experiences of racism in medical encounters.

Conclusions: These narratives demonstrate ways in which experienced racism, both past and present, may inform how parents receive and respond to gaps in PCC. Communication focused interventions that adapt a race-conscious perspective may have a role in promoting health equity.