FCC has appropriately been adopted as a philosophy of care for pediatric nursing. The concept has evolved from allowing parents to visit their hospitalized child to welcoming parents as full participants in partnership with health professionals.
Current research has demonstrated that families value and desire FCC and that nurses agree with this philosophy.
It is disheartening to note that more than 50 years after Blake (1954)
first set forth the essentials of FCC, pediatric nurses continue to struggle with providing this type of care.
This gap between what is perceived as important and what is actually practiced marks an area of frustration and dissatisfaction for both families and clinicians. The research to date provides a solid foundation for the next step: to move forward in conducting research focused on assisting nurses in implementing this basic philosophy of practice in all settings and situations in which children receive health care