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Parents' experiences of their child's admission to paediatric intensive care
1Southampton University Hospital, Southampton.
Insights
Parents experience significant stress and anxiety when a child is admitted to the paediatric intensive care unit (PICU). Understanding these parental experiences is crucial for providing effective support during a child's PICU stay.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Intensive Care
- Parental Experience
- Psychological Stress
Background:
- Pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) admission is a highly stressful event for parents due to uncertain outcomes.
- Parental coping mechanisms and nursing support needs require further exploration.
Purpose of the Study:
- To explore the lived experiences of parents whose children have been admitted to a pediatric intensive care unit (PICU).
Main Methods:
- Interpretative phenomenology based on Heidegger's philosophy.
- Six unstructured interviews were conducted and analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis.
- Purposive sampling was used to select participants.
Main Results:
- Emergent themes varied among participants.
- Key themes included trauma, parental responsibility, anxiety about child's location, post-traumatic stress symptoms, and transfer to a general ward.
Conclusions:
- Parental experiences in the PICU are characterized by a range of intense emotions.
- Anxiety is most pronounced at the beginning of the PICU admission and upon transfer from the PICU.
Background:
Admission of a child to the paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) may be one of the most stressful events for parents because the outcome is often uncertain. So how do parents cope, and how can we as nurses help them?
Aim:
To explore the lived experiences of parents whose children have been admitted to a PICU.
Methods:
Using Heidegger's school of interpretative phenomenology, six unstructured interviews were conducted. These were transcribed and analysed following interpretative phenomenological analysis. Participants were chosen through purposive sampling.
Findings:
Each participant had different emergent themes. Themes included trauma, responsibility, anxiety about where the child is, post-traumatic stress symptoms and transfer to the ward.
Conclusion:
The lived experience of a parent is fraught with varying different emotions, with the beginning of the journey and the ending of the PICU admission causing the most anxiety.
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