Evaluation and comparison of parental needs, stressors, and coping strategies in a pediatric intensive care unit

Abstract

Acute parental experiences can be documented using the COMPASS questionnaire. This study highlights the principal needs, stressors, and coping strategies of parents of children in the pediatric intensive care unit. The experiences of mothers and fathers are similar, but we identify some differences in stressors between the sexes.

Parents' Experience of the Transition with their Child from a Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) to the Hospital Ward: Searching for Comfort Across Transitions

“…The environment has been noted as one of parents' stressors during their child's critical care admission (Carnevale, 1990;Jee, et al, 2012). Compared with previous studies, this current study has revealed different findings as the parent participants placed more emphasis upon the environment, linking their ability to achieve comfort to the environment of the hospital units.…”

“…Getting the perspective from the whole family is very important in familycentered care, because mothers and fathers may experience stress differently and have different needs while in PICU. For example, Jee et al (2012) found that mothers needed to participate in care, be informed about the transfer, and be informed of changes in their child's condition significantly more often than fathers. Jee et al also noted statistically significant differences between mothers and fathers in terms of the emphasis placed on the ability to care for the child, the child's looks, and reactions to the procedures or leaving the child.…”

“…One of the most stressful experiences parents had was the admission of their child to a PICU (Hickey & Rykerson, 1992;Jee, et al, 2012). This presents both a challenge and a privilege and responsibility for nurses working in this area: to provide care to patients, while being attuned to parental needs (Hickey & Rykerson).…”

“…Many authors noted a loss of parental role as one of the main stressors in PICU (Carnevale, 1990;Carter & Miles, 1989;Colville, et al, 2009;Jee et al, 2012;Noyes, 1998).…”

“…These effects on the family included parents having to live apart from their other children and spouse, potential changes in spousal relationships, and parents' not having time to take care of themselves or their relationships. These sources of parental stress include the environment (Carnevale, 1990;Jee, et al, 2012), loss of parental role (Carnevale;Carter & Miles, 1989;Colville, et al, 2009;Jee et al;Noyes, 1998), the child's appearance (Ridling et al, 2006), and uncertain outcomes (Ridling et al).…”