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. 2021 Jul;27(3):297-307.
doi: 10.4094/chnr.2021.27.3.297. Epub 2021 Jul 30.

Differences in perceived parental stress between parents with very low birth weight infants and nurses in neonatal intensive care units, South Korea

Seol-Hee Moon  1 , Ho-Ran Park  2 , Dong Yeon Kim  3
Affiliations

Differences in perceived parental stress between parents with very low birth weight infants and nurses in neonatal intensive care units, South Korea

Seol-Hee Moon et al. Child Health Nurs Res. 2021 Jul.

Abstract

Purpose: This descriptive study compared the perceived parental stress levels between parents with very low birth weight infants (VLBWIs) and nurses in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).

Methods: In total, 83 parents of VLBWIs and 78 NICU nurses were enrolled. Data were collected with the Parental Stress Scale (PSS) and analyzed using the t-test and analysis of variance in SAS version 9.4.

Results: The average PSS score was 3.31 among parents and 3.45 among nurses. The stress score was significantly higher among nurses with children (t=2.46, p=.016) and senior nurses (t=2.12, p=.037). There was a significant difference in the stress score according to parents' education (t=3.29, p=.002) and occupation (F=3.14, p=.049) in the sights and sounds subscale. Mothers had significantly higher stress scores than fathers in the parental role alterations subscale (t=2.32, p=.023). Parental stress scores were higher than those perceived by nurses in the infant's appearance and behaviors subscale for breathing patterns (t=2.95, p=.004), followed by jerky/restless behavior (t=2.70, p=.008).

Conclusion: Nurses should provide explanations to parents of VLBWIs in order to reduce parental stress about the appearances and behavior of VLBWIs. This is more important than aspect of the NICU environment and education about parental roles.

Keywords: Neonatal intensive care unit; Nurses; Parents; Stress, psychological; Very low birth weight infants.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest No existing or potential conflict of interest relevant to this article was reported.

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