Shifting and intersecting needs: Parents' experiences during and following the withdrawal of life sustaining treatments in the paediatric intensive care unit.
Elizabeth G Broden, Allison Werner-Lin, Martha A Q Curley and 1 others
PMID 35219558WHAT IT FOUND
Bereaved parents remembered needing to be close to their dying child as central.
Nurses were remembered as helpful when they protected privacy and made room for closeness, while unresolved clinical questions stayed with them for years.
Key findings
01Being physically and emotionally close to their dying child was a central parental need, and nurses who protected privacy or allowed closeness despite visitation rules were remembered as helpful.
02Parents interviewed 7 to 11 years after death still ruminated on questions, self-blame, and doubt about clinical circumstances around the death.
03PICU policies, processes, and physical setup could enable or inhibit being together and making final memories with the child.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
Only 8 parents completed interviews, so this cannot show how common these experiences were among bereaved PICU families. All parents were female, and participants were of similar genders and races; fathers and minoritised populations were not represented. Parents of children who died from acute illness or injury did not volunteer, so experiences of sudden or traumatic death may be missing. Interviews happened 7 to 11 years after death, so memories may be affected by time and later grief. Many eligible parents could not be contacted or declined; 8 parents completed interviews while 40 eligible parents remained after exclusions, so those who chose to speak may differ from those who did not. Only parents able to consent to the interview, including English-speaking parents, were included.
Declared interests
The supplied text does not state a funder. The authors report no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not treat these themes as evidence that specific nursing actions improve long-term parental grief. The study interviewed 8 bereaved parents 7 to 11 years after their child's death and reports remembered needs, not a tested intervention or outcome.