Children as decision-makers in health care : An integrative review

Abstract

The aim of this integrative review is to describe a child’s participation in the decision-making process related to treatment. Thegoal is to increase knowledge of the ways that healthcare professionals can use to support a child’s decision-making ability.The data were gathered from the Medline and Cinahl databases and the data consisted of 23 articles which were published inscientific journals during 2002-2013. The articles were analyzed with an inductive content analysis. The results of the reviewshow that a child’s knowledge skills, wishes and values were often not taken into account and their participation was limited.Children were taken into account to varying degrees, depending on the time available and the individual healthcare professional.The personnel often made the treatment decisions on behalf of the families. This was greatly influenced by the attitudes of thepersonnel and parents and the ability of the healthcare personnel to work with child patients. The professional language used indiscussions was shown to be an obstacle to flexible cooperation.