Partnering with parents and youth to co-design discharge communication interventions for pediatric emergency care

Discharge communication in a pediatric emergency department can be a challenging time for parents, youth and clinicians. Most discharge communication interventions that have been evaluated in the literature target parents but few consider how the chaotic nature of an emergency department might impact communication. To date, parents and youth have not been involved in designing discharge communication interventions. Inadequate discharge communication can lead to poor health outcomes and can result in unnecessary return visits to the emergency department. We aim to evaluate a strategy for partnering with parents, youth and emergency department clinicians to co-design discharge communication interventions for asthma and minor head injury.