Sammanfattning
The background to the project presented in this article is a paediatric unit in which traditional ward rounds were substituted with family conferences in a meeting room, the aim being to improve the quality of cooperation between medical staff, children as inpatients and their families. The aim of the project was to highlight nurses’ perception of their own role in the family conference and how they adapted to the role. The method involved qualitative method triangulation involving observation and interview of three nurses from the unit. The results suggest that role perception and role performance are characterised by tradition-bound role and workplace cultures, which do not automatically change when one changes working methods and performance of tasks. Consequently, the conclusion is that the first and most important step toward a real modernisation of the ward round occurs by renewing the frameworks and introducing family conferences, but one should continue working towards clarifying attitudes and roles within interdisciplinary cooperation, such that information and professional opinions from all professional groups are included in decisions made about, and with, the admitted child and his or her family.