Family Members’ Perceptions Among the Quality of Information Disclosure Provided by Honduran Health Personnel: A Qualitative Study

Communication between patients’ relatives and healthcare professionals has not played a relevant role in the healthcare environment, since the actions from developing countries usually focused on procedures with low cost. Despite the relevance of this phenomenon, there are no scientific records from Honduras regarding the perceptions of family members with the information disclosure provided by health personnel. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the family members’ perceptions of the quality of information disclosure provided by the patients’ health personnel in the emergency departments in the public hospitals in Honduras. A phenomenological study was carried out. Data collection was carried out through in‐depth interviews, guided by five open‐ended questions based on the main concepts of the study. Seven family members with first‐level consanguinity were selected through purposeful sampling. The data analysis was developed following Colaizzi’s seven steps. The findings are discussed under five key themes, 15 subthemes, and 18 concepts that were brought up most by the participants reflecting about their perceptions regarding the information disclosure of their relative’s health conditions by the nurses and medical doctors. Subsequently, the difficulties in the appropriate quality of information disclosure, reflecting on ethical issues, and importance of valuing highly educated nurses in the information disclosure are illustrated. In conclusions, the family members’ unsatisfaction to the public healthcare services is due to the lack of quality of information received by emergency department’s health personnel, likewise the lack of humane treatment. The abovementioned problem points out the need of incorporating highly educated nurses to be responsible for the caring and information disclosure in emergency departments. In addition, nurses should participate in the management of public policies that guarantee the design of health models which consider the family members of hospitalized patients as strategic allies during the caring processes. Investing in the patient, family and health personnel’s assertive communication is to invest in a humanized treatment.