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Pediatric intensive care: the parents' experience
E C Meyer1, L K Snelling, L K Myren-Manbeck
1Department of Pediatrics, Brown University School of Medicine, Providence, Rhode Island, USA.
Insights
Parents experience significant stress when a child is admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU). Addressing parental needs for information, access, and participation can improve their experience during critical illness.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Critical Care Medicine
- Parental Psychosocial Support
- Nursing Practice
Background:
- Emergent pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) admission induces parental fear and helplessness.
- Critical illness disrupts parents' roles as protectors and providers, undermining their sense of control.
- Key stressors include role displacement, child's condition, and communication barriers.
Purpose of the Study:
- To identify parental stress factors in the PICU setting.
- To highlight essential parental needs during a child's critical illness.
- To explore the role of advanced practice nurses in supporting these parents.
Main Methods:
- Qualitative analysis of parental experiences and needs in the PICU.
- Review of factors contributing to parental stress.
- Examination of intervention strategies for psychosocial support.
Main Results:
- Parental stress is linked to loss of familiar roles, child's appearance/behavior, and staff communication issues.
- Parents prioritize accurate information, child access, and involvement in care.
- Advanced practice nurses can significantly enhance psychosocial services.
Conclusions:
- Understanding parental stress in the PICU is crucial for effective support.
- Meeting parental needs for information, access, and participation improves coping.
- Advanced practice nurses are pivotal in delivering and improving psychosocial care for families in the PICU.
Abstract:
A child's emergent admission to the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) can strike fear and feelings of helplessness into the hearts of parents who only hours earlier had been in control of their lives. Acute critical illness seriously threatens the parents' ability to fulfill their familiar and important roles of protecting and providing for their child. The PICU setting can rapidly undermine the sense of competence, control, and stability of even the most dedicated parents. Parental stress is primarily caused by their displacement from familiar roles, the child's appearance and behavior, and difficulties in communicating with staff members. In planning interventions, these issues should be considered as well as the specific needs that parents have emphasized: accurate information, ready access to their children, and meaningful participation in their children's care. Advanced practice nurses are in an excellent position to improve delivery of psychosocial services to parents of critically ill children through direct care, acting as models of care practices and mentoring staff, staff education, policy development, and clinical research.