Parental emotional, social and transitional health in the first 6 months after childhood critical illness: A longitudinal qualitative study.
Pei-Fen Poh, Matthew C Carey, Joseph C Manning and 2 others
PMID 38922972WHAT IT FOUND
After a child's PICU discharge, parents described worry, delayed self-care and added home medical tasks.
Most felt life returned to normal by 6 months, but families with ongoing treatment continued to need emotional and practical support.
Key findings
01Parents described ongoing emotional strain after discharge, including persistent worries about health deterioration, delayed self-care and intrusive memories.
02Children needed physical support during the first 2 weeks at home, and parents took on monitoring and medical care tasks.
03Most families returned to previous routines by 6 months, but parents of children with ongoing medical treatment continued to experience exhaustion, financial concerns and difficulty getting employer support.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The study describes parents' experiences; it does not test whether any discharge intervention works. It was done in one Singapore PICU and focused on children's first PICU admission, so it may not apply to families with repeated admissions or other health systems. The paper reports different parent counts: 23 parents of children, 28 parents interviewed at 1 month, and 22 parents completing the second interview, so the analysed sample is not clear. Six parents did not attend the second interview, including three Malay mothers, and the reason was not explored. Children were sometimes present during interviews, which may have made parents less open. Only seven fathers consented, so paternal experiences were limited. COVID-19 restrictions emerged during analysis and may have shaped experiences.
Declared interests
Partly funded by KKH Academic Medicine Start-up funds of KK Women's and Children's Hospital, Singapore and SingHealth FY2019 Talent Development Fund Award-Research. The funders were not involved in the conduct of the study. The authors declared no conflict of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the 6-month improvement as evidence that post-discharge support can be withdrawn. Parents of children with ongoing medical treatment, cancer, congenital heart disease or complications continued to report worry, exhaustion and practical demands.