Support behind the scenes: Attitudes and practice of pediatricians and nurses with grandparents of sick children

A total of 93 nurses and 52 pediatricians completed a quantitative and qualitative questionnaire tapping their perceptions of the functional aspects of grandparents' support to parents, the benefits and costs of this support, and their professional interactions with grandparents during the child's sickness. Results show that although healthcare professionals acknowledge the significant and stable role that grandparents can play, they rarely translate this into actual practice. Also, despite their emphasis on the importance of emotional support, they believed the actual support provided by the grandparents to be mainly instrumental, followed by emotional and financial support, and information and advice. The findings present a challenge to professionals and policy makers to adopt an approach of family-centered care that includes the grandparents, an important family resource that has been largely ignored.