Nurse-led proactive mobile application in symptom management for children with medical complexity: Study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

Winsome Lam, Zehua Zhao, Queenie P.S. Law, Vivian W.F. Ngai, Frances K.Y. Wong, Cathrine Fowler

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Aim
To investigate the effect of a nurse support using a proactive mobile app to enhance parental self-efficacy in symptom management for children with medical complexity.

Design
A single-blinded, randomized controlled trial with a two-armed repeated measures design.

Methods
Eligible parents and the children will be recruited from the special schools and non-government offices. They will be randomly assigned either to the intervention or control groups. Subjects in the study group will receive nurse parental support using a symptom management mobile app for 3 months. The control group will receive the usual care that is available in the community. Data will be collected pre-intervention (T1), immediately after the intervention (T2), and three-month after intervention (T3). The primary outcome is parental self-efficacy. The secondary outcomes include child's symptom burden and their health service utilization. Primary outcome will be compared across two groups in T2 and T3 using with control for the pre-test value of parental self-efficacy. Generalized estimating equation (GEE) will be used to address secondary objectives from T1 to T3 with appropriate link function.

Discussion
As a result of the successful implementation of this nurse-led symptom management, parental self-efficacy will be enhanced. Both the symptoms reported by the children and their health service utilization will be reduced. Findings of this study will help in service delivery improvements because it maximizes the availability and accessibility of paediatric health service to parents and the children in local communities.

Impact
The evidence produced in this study will enlarge the knowledge base that supports evidence-based paediatric home nursing service with the use of health technology in symptom management. This evidence will also contribute to the development of other symptom management programs for other paediatric patient groups.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)3856-3865
Number of pages10
JournalJournal of Advanced Nursing
Volume80
Issue number9
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 8 Aug 2024

Keywords

  • child with medical complexity
  • mobile application
  • nurse-led
  • parental support
  • randomized controlled trial
  • symptom management

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