Parents: the best experts in child health care? Viewpoints from parents and staff concerning child health services

The aim was to describe what parents and staff think about child health care, to identify agreements and disagreements. A qualitative study was made with semi-structured interviews based on a phenomenographic approach. Sixty parents, 14 nurses and six doctors from southern Sweden were interviewed. Parents and staff emphasized two tasks as being of particular importance: support and check-ups. There was a conflict between parents' need for security versus integrity. Individual nurses experienced a conflict between what they wanted to do and what they felt that they had to do. The parents viewed parental education as a chance to exchange experiences with other parents and receive support from other adults, while the staff mainly saw it as an opportunity to inform parents and strengthen them in their parental role. The study gives grounds for reflection about how the work of child health care can be changed in the future