Background: Immigrant mothers who bring their critically ill children to the emergency department (ED) for urgent medical care frequently are unfamiliar with the ED environment, have difficulties communicating with health care staff, and feel their immediate medical needs ignored. While such is a source of great stress for this growing segment of the Taiwan population, related research to date is insufficient. Purpose: This study explored the influence of the ED environment on immigrant mother experiences seeking medical assistance for their critically ill children. Methods: This qualitative study used grounded theory to collect and analyze data. A semi-structured questionnaire was developed to conduct in-depth interviews with 12 immigrant mothers from Southeast Asia, all of whom had basic Mandarin Chinese listening and communication abilities. Constant comparison, theoretical sampling, and an expert panel were used to ensure research trustworthiness. Results: Two categories and four subcategories emerged from this study. "Children's acute illness onset" represented the causal condition of immigrant mothers in sending their critically ill children to the ED. "Chaotic and busy emergency environment" was the contextual condition identified that showed the medical care seeking process employed by subjects. The latter category comprised the three subcategories of "medical and nursing staff are too busy to be available," "negative ED health care staff attitudes," and "chaotic ED environment." Conclusion / Implications for Practice: Immigrant mother medical needs are not satisfied due to culture and language communication barriers. We suggest that medical institutions address seriously issues in their ED environment by assigning sufficient nursing manpower and promoting multilingual capabilities in order to satisfy the medical needs of immigrant mothers and improve ED care service quality.

Immigrant mothers emergency department Grounded theory Critically ill children

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