title: Parent's perceptions of health care providers actions around child ICU death: what helped, what did not.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To describe parents' perspectives of health care provider actions that helped or did not around the time of infant/child's intensive care unit (ICU) death. Semistructured interviews with 63 parents (Black, White, and Hispanic) 7 months post infant/child death were audio-recorded, transcribed, analyzed, and themes identified.
  
  
  RESULTS
  What helped most: compassionate, sensitive staff; understandable explanations of infant's/child's condition; experienced, competent nurses; providers did everything to help infant/child; and parents' involvement in care decisions. What did not help: insensitive, nonsupportive staff; conflict between providers and parents; communication problems around the death; inexperienced nurses and doctors; parents not understanding child's disease, care, complications.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Compassionate, sensitive staff and understandable explanations of children's conditions were most helpful; insensitive, nonsupportive staff least helpful by gender, racial group, or care setting. Conflict between providers and parents was most problematic for minority parents and mothers.
authors.affiliation: Florida International University College of Nursing & Health Sciences, Miami, FL 33199, USA. brooten@fiu.edu
authors.forename: Dorothy
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Brooten
authors.forename: Joanne M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Youngblut
authors.forename: Lynn
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Seagrave
authors.forename: Carmen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Caicedo
authors.forename: Dawn
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hawthorne
authors.forename: Ivette
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Hidalgo
authors.forename: Rosa
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Roche
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002648:Child; D002673:Child, Hospitalized; D003142:Communication; D004645:Empathy; D005006:Ethnicity; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007363:Intensive Care Units, Neonatal / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015278:Intensive Care Units, Pediatric / Q000458:organization & administration*; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D010465:Perception; D011368:Professional-Family Relations; D012737:Sex Factors