In any healthcare context, the most important person is the patient and, in the case of pediatric patients, also their parents. If a healthcare provider is unable to communicate adequately, patients may become frustrated and angry. According to Levetown (2008) there are three important elements in building the relationship between doctor, parent and child. These consist of the informativeness or quality of health information provided, the interpersonal sensitivity or ability of a doctor to show interest in the emotions and concerns of the parents and child, and the building of partnerships (Levetown 2008). These basics can be applied to all healthcare professionals, not just doctors themselves. Starting with information about their child's health, many parents have personal preferences about how that information is provided. Fisher (2005) noted that there appear to be two very opposite coping styles for adults, consisting of information seeking and information avoidance: Parents who use an information seeking coping style attempt to obtain as much information as possible. possible about the situation to provide a brief sense of control. Parents who are more comfortable with an information avoidance style apply behavioral or cognitive strategies aimed at distancing themselves from stressful information to provide a short-term means of emotionally controlling periods of uncertainty. (p. 233) Meyer et al. (2006) conducted research on parents of children admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit. They found that “Parents were clear that honest and complete information must be provided and shared with families,” these parents seem to fall into the information seeking category described above. When all information is provided... middle of paper ......Physician-parent communication during pediatric cancer studies. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 30 n. 3, 231-234. doi:10.1093/jpepsy/jsio33Levetown, M. (2008). Communicating with children and families: From everyday interactions to the ability to convey distressing information. Pediatrics, 12(5), e1441-e1460. Meyer, E. C., Ritholz, M. D., Burns, J. P., & Truog, R. D. (2006). Improving the quality of end-of-life care in the pediatric intensive care unit: parental priorities and recommendations. Pediatrics, 117 (3), 649-657. doi: 10.1542/peds.2005-0144Wasserman, R.C., Inui, T.S., Barriatua, R.D., Carter, W.B., & Lippincott, P. (1984).Pediatric physicians' support for parents makes a difference: a physician-based analysis on the results - Interaction with parents. Pediatrics, 74(6), 1047-1053. Retrieved from http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/74/6/1047