Parental and Healthcare Professional Concern in the Diagnosis of Paediatric Sepsis

Determining diagnostic accuracy of concern levels in parents, doctors and nurses to recognise paediatric sepsis by study-specific questionnaire completion. This will take place in children being screened for sepsis and/or having biobanking completed (a single blood sample) at two large tertiary sites. The surveys will be distributed to one of the child’s parents/caregiver’s, nurse and doctor on presentation and will be completed during ED stay (observation session). Surveys will aim to be completed at time closest to triage and within 4-hrs from initial presentation. All eligible participants where prospective consent is obtained will be given a study-specific questionnaire containing up to seven questions where they will rate their level of concern, to which they agree or disagree with a statement or question using a 5 point likert scale followed by two free text questions requesting information on symptoms and symptoms most concerning. Both medical officer and nurse caring for the child will receive a study specific survey one for medical, one for nurses, containing six questions to complete. It is anticipated the questionnaire takes no longer then five minutes to complete over a single session. The questionnaire will be handed to the medical officer, nurse and parent by either a research nurse or initiated by the clinician caring for the child if outside research team hours. To ensure consistent comparison, all surveys have the same basic design and content, with minor adaptions to reflect the participant role (parent vs nurse vs doctor).