Services for parental stress reduction in a pediatric ICU

The stress of having their child in an ICU can be alleviated by keeping parents informed, ensuring positive relationships between staff and parents, providing concrete services that meet parents' needs, and maximizing parental involvement in the care of their child. We interviewed the parents of 22 children cared for in a pediatric ICU to determine how well their needs were met by the staff and facilities. Responses confirmed the importance of the 4 interventions listed above and indicated a high degree of satisfaction. The results emphasized the need for ICU staff to introduce themselves repeatedly to parents and make certain parents know who is responsible for their child's care, and to encourage parents to ask questions about their child's illness and therapy.