A qualitative study exploring the experiences of parents of children admitted to seven Dutch pediatric intensive care units.
OBJECTIVE
To explore parents' experiences during the admission of their children to a pediatric intensive care unit (PICU).


METHODS
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.
Department of Pediatrics, Division of Pediatric Intensive Care, Erasmus MC, Sophia Children's Hospital, Room Sp-1539, P.O. Box 2060, 3000, CB, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. j.latour@erasmusmc.nl
Jos M
JM
Latour
Johannes B
JB
van Goudoever
Beatrix Elink
BE
Schuurman
Marcel J I J
MJ
Albers
Nicolette A M
NA
van Dam
Eugenie
E
Dullaart
Marc
M
van Heerde
Carin W M
CW
Verlaat
Elise M
EM
van Vught
Jan A
JA
Hazelzet
D000046:Academic Medical Centers; D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003258:Consumer Behavior; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D015278:Intensive Care Units, Pediatric / Q000592:standards*; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009426:Netherlands; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D013315:Stress, Psychological; D055815:Young Adult