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ABSTRACT: Purpose
To explore parents' experiences during the admission of their children to a pediatric intensive care unit (PICU).Method
Qualitative method using in-depth interviews. Thematic analysis was applied to capture parents' experiences. Thirty-nine mothers and 25 fathers of 41 children admitted to seven of the eight PICUs in university medical centers in The Netherlands were interviewed.Results
Parents were interviewed within 1 month after their child's discharge from a PICU. Thematic analysis identified 1,514 quotations that were coded into 63 subthemes. The subthemes were categorized into six major themes: attitude of the professionals; coordination of care; emotional intensity; information management; environmental factors; parent participation. Most themes had an overarching relationship representing the array of experiences encountered by parents when their child was staying in a PICU. The theme of emotional intensity was in particular associated with all the other themes.Conclusions
The findings provided a range of themes and subthemes describing the complexity of the parental experiences of a PICU admission. The subthemes present a systematic and thematic basis for the development of a quantitative instrument to measure parental experiences and satisfaction with care. The findings of this study have important clinical implications related to the deeper understanding of parental experiences and improving family-centered care.
SUBMITTER: Latour JM
PROVIDER: S-EPMC3028069 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Feb
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Latour Jos M JM van Goudoever Johannes B JB Schuurman Beatrix Elink BE Albers Marcel J I J MJ van Dam Nicolette A M NA Dullaart Eugenie E van Heerde Marc M Verlaat Carin W M CW van Vught Elise M EM Hazelzet Jan A JA
Intensive care medicine 20101110 2
<h4>Purpose</h4>To explore parents' experiences during the admission of their children to a pediatric intensive care unit (PICU).<h4>Method</h4>Qualitative method using in-depth interviews. Thematic analysis was applied to capture parents' experiences. Thirty-nine mothers and 25 fathers of 41 children admitted to seven of the eight PICUs in university medical centers in The Netherlands were interviewed.<h4>Results</h4>Parents were interviewed within 1 month after their child's discharge from a P ...[more]