Perceived family-centered care and post-traumatic stress in parents of infants cared for in the paediatric cardiac intensive care unit.
Amy J Lisanti, Jungwon Min, Nadya Golfenshtein and 3 others
PMID 38816199WHAT IT FOUND
Parents who felt nurses consistently delivered family-centred care during their infant's cardiac ICU stay reported fewer post-traumatic stress symptoms four months later.
Higher perceptions of care were linked to less severity and fewer symptoms, suggesting consistent nurse engagement may protect parental mental health.
Key findings
01For every 10% increase in parents' perception of family-centred care, their post-traumatic stress symptom severity and number of symptoms decreased at four-month follow-up.
02Parents who reported at least moderate post-traumatic stress symptoms had a 12.7% lower perception of family-centred care compared to those with lower symptoms.
03Parents who met diagnostic criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder scored 17.9% lower on the family-centred care match scale than those without the disorder.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The sample consisted primarily of White, non-Hispanic mothers, limiting generalizability to fathers and diverse racial or ethnic groups. The study excluded parents of infants with other morbidities or complications, who may be at even greater risk for post-traumatic stress. Data were collected pre-COVID-19, so findings may not reflect current practices where infection control often restricts family-centred care. As an observational analysis of trial data, it shows association but cannot prove that nurse behaviour directly caused the reduction in parental stress symptoms.
Declared interests
The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose. The study was supported by N.I.H. Extramural funding.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that specific nurse interventions like skin-to-skin care were proven to reduce PTSD in this study. The analysis shows an association between parents' overall perception of care consistency and their mental health, but it does not isolate which specific nursing behaviours caused the effect, nor does it account for the fact that most parents reported not receiving the care they wanted.