Effectiveness of caregiver educational materials for paediatric community-acquired pneumonia in the emergency department: a qualitative study

ObjectivesThe objective of this study was to better understand caregiver perspectives on educational materials relating to paediatric community-acquired pneumonia and antibiotic stewardship in the emergency department setting.MethodsThis was a phenomenologically informed qualitative study. Caregivers of young children in Hamilton, Ontario were presented with four educational materials (animated video, physician led lecture-style video, caregiver led testimony-style video, and a printed brochure) providing information relating to treatment strategies for community-acquired pneumonia. Caregivers were then asked open-ended questions about how they felt about the effectiveness of the media used. The principles of conventional content analysis guided the coding and synthesis of the transcribed interviews.ResultsEleven caregivers were interviewed. Most caregivers preferred the animated video and brochure to the lecture-style physician video and caregiver testimonial video. Common themes for effective educational materials included visually attention-grabbing graphics, accessible language, and formats they could reference following their visit (e.g. brochure).ConclusionsThe busy nature of the emergency department setting can impede effective communication between clinicians and parents. Employing educational materials may allow for more informed parent-provider communication on care decision making. Caregivers in our study prioritized the simplest information formats for education around community-acquired pneumonia and antimicrobial stewardship which could be referenced following discharge. This was best accomplished by short, animated videos and brochures. Results from this study can inform development of future educational materials used in paediatric emergency department settings to optimize caregiver education and corresponding care plan adherence.