Impact of Pediatric Critical Illness and Injury on Families: An Updated Systematic Review

Abstract

Problem: Pediatric ICUs (PICU) that have adopted family-centered care models welcome families to the critically ill child's bedside to partner with clinicians in decision-making and the provision of care. The aim of this review was to synthesize the evidence on the impact of critical illness and injury on families of children admitted to the PICU to identify research needs in pediatric critical care.

Eligibility criteria: This systematic review included quantitative and qualitative studies that examined the experiences of families of children admitted to a PICU published between 2005 and 2019.

Sample: 33 articles were selected for inclusion in the final analysis after screening those identified by searches in CINAHL, PubMed, PsycINFO, and reference lists of included publications.

Results: Main parental stressors included the sights and sounds within the PICU, child acuity, changes to family functioning and parenting role, and uncertainty of the child's outcome. The most common need of parents was to be well-informed. Psychological, physical, and social impact of hospitalization were experienced by parents from days after admission to years after discharge. Spirituality was identified as a coping mechanism in half of the studies.

Conclusions: Parents experience negative effects of the ill child's admission to the PICU and to PICU exposure.

Implications: Careful consideration of the impact of the PICU admission on family members of critically ill or injured children is needed when implementing family-centered care strategies. Future research on other family members including the healthy sibling needs to be conducted.

Keywords: Critically ill child; Family; Impact; Injury; PICU.