ORCID
- Sarah Neill: 0000-0001-9699-078X
- John Downey: 0000-0001-8534-2437
- Matt Carey: 0000-0003-3411-0657
Abstract
Acutely-ill children under five years are increasing users of urgent and emergency care with no increase in acuity of presenting illnesses. This raises concerns about parents' knowledge and confidence in assessing the severity ofsymptoms of acute illness, despite the abundance of digital information available.Method:Weco-designedtheiPoorlychildsymptomcheckerappusingexperience-basedco-designmethodology with seven parents and seven health professional patient and public involvement representatives. The prototype was iteratively developed on a no-code platform, then released for testing on android and iOS app stores for six weeks. The app was downloaded 603 times and 60% of users completed the embedded evaluation form. Results: System usability scale items were all positively scored by 91% to 53% of respondents. Thematic analysis of open text responses identified that respondents found the app easy to use and reported that it enhanced theirunderstanding of acute childhood illness, increased their confidence in caring for their child, reassured them about their child's illness and/or helped them to decide whether or not to seek medical help.Conclusion: These findings show that providing parents with accessible, trustworthy information on symptoms of childhood illness increases knowledge, understanding and confidence in caring and seeking help for a sick child.The results demonstrate proof of concept for this co-developed prototype app and the iterative process of development.Implications for practice: Apps can be a powerful adjunct to information resources nurses provide for parents and should be embedded in health services for children.
DOI Link
Publication Date
2026-04-20
Publication Title
Journal of Pediatric Nursing
Volume
89
Issue
2026
ISSN
0882-5963
Acceptance Date
2026-03-31
Deposit Date
2026-04-21
Additional Links
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0882596326001600
First Page
91
Last Page
99
Recommended Citation
Neill, S., Rathbone, A., Downey, J., Lakhanpaul, m., Roland, D., & Carey, M. (2026) 'Co-production of a mobile application for parents of acutely ill children under five: ‘iPoorly child symptom checker’', Journal of Pediatric Nursing, 89(2026), pp. 91-99. Available at: 10.1016/j.pedn.2026.03.048
