Sources and content of advice sought by parents/guardians prior to emergency department attendance.

Aim: To describe sources of advice and the recommendations given to parents/guardians prior to attending ED with their child.

Methods: This was a prospective observational study of patients presenting to two EDs of a multi-centre Victorian Health service in June 2016. Data collection involved surveying all parents/guardians attending paediatric ED during a 1-week period by trained research assistants. We determined the proportion of eligible respondents who sought advice before attending ED, the source of advice, and the type of advice provided.

Results: One thousand sixty-nine patients presented to ED over the 1-week period. There were 730 responses to the survey, of which 65% (477/730) had received a total of 620 recommendations prior to ED attendance. Seventy-six per cent (362/477) had received advice from a single source, 19% (90/477) had received advice from 2 sources, and 5% (25/477) from 3 or more sources. The most common sources of advice were general practice consultations (49%), friends/family (13.5%), and NURSE-ON-CALL (11%). Fifty-four per cent (335/620) of the recommendations were to attend ED immediately and 12% (77/620) were to attend if their child was getting worse.

Conclusions: Most parents and guardians sought advice from a single source prior to attending an ED. The most common source of advice was consultation with a general practitioner and the most common recommendation was to attend ED immediately, or if their child's condition worsened.