Family-Centered Care: A Philosophy to be Developed.
FCC is a philosophy of care that recognizes that the family is a constant in the lives of children and that professionals only act at specific moments. It is the parents and not the professionals who really know the child and their needs.1,2 This situation is especially relevant in the case of children with chronic health issues. We will begin this work with a brief review of the evolution of
childcare.
The United Kingdom (UK) was the first country in which the mother was able to accompany her child during hospitalization. Thus, Sir James Spence, a doctor at the Children’s Hospital in
Newcastle-upon-Tyne, inaugurated in 1925 the first clinical service to which mothers could accompany their sick children. Two years later in New Zealand, Pickerill and Pickerill let the mother accompany the child to reduce cross-infection.
This gave an important impetus to improving the deplorable conditions of hospitalization in Britain and Europe at that time, introducing innovations in aspects of medical education, planning and architectural design of new hospitals and the creation, in 1961, of Mother Care for Children in Hospital, later known as the National Association for the Welfare of Children in Hospital (NAWCH), which is currently called Action for Sick Children, whose Quality Standard for Care of the Sick Child, established in 1990, is now fully in force in the UK. Its functions are those of the upbringing and socialization of children, and providing assistance to all members.
Pediatr Neonatal Nurs Open J. 2017; 5(1): 1-5. doi: 10.17140/PNNOJ-5-126
