Parental intuition: a phenomenological structure of intuitive knowing in the context of child illness and shared decision-making in healthcare

Editorial reading guide · Collaboration

How can a parent explain a familiar child's subtle change to a clinician?

Parents describe the kind of knowledge they bring to a clinical conversation from knowing a child over time. The evidence concerns those experiences and their meaning.

Who was studied?

Twelve parents interviewed remotely about intuitive knowledge in the context of child illness.

Age / stage: Parents managing childhood illness

Read with three questions

1. What does the phenomenological analysis reveal about the parents' own language?
2. How did the researchers move from individual accounts to their interpretation?
3. Where in the decision process could the child, the parent and the clinician express different priorities?

Keep the limits in view

The accounts document experiences in the circumstances studied. They cannot establish how common an experience is in the wider population or measure an intervention effect.