Effects of the nursing mutual participation model of care on parental stress in the pediatric intensive care unit

Abstract

The pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) hospitalization of a child is stressful for parents. Helping parents to decrease their stress is warranted so that they can function in the vital role that is therapeutic to them and their critically ill child. Many parent-supportive nursing interventions have been recommended but none has been tested in the clinical setting. A quasi-experimental design was used to study the effects of the nursing mutual participation model of care (NMPMC) on the perceived environmental stress of parents in the PICU. Thirty-three parents, experiencing the PICU for the first time, participated in the study. Sequential sampling divided the participants into two groups, control and experimental. The experimental group participated in the NMPMC, designed to be supportive to and guided by the perceived individual needs of each parent. The dependent measure was the Parental Stressor Scale: Pediatric Intensive Care Unit administered within 24 to 48 hours of PICU admission, every 48 hours thereafter, and 24 hours after PICU discharge. The results indicate that the NMPMC is helpful in alleviating parental stress, specifically the stress related to interruption in the parent-child relationship, in the PICU setting.