Background: Nowadays, because of the improvement of the medical and technical development, very preterm born or critically ill children have a higher chance of survival.
Therefore, they need to be admitted and treated at a hospital with a neonatal or paediatric intensive care unit. This environment can be very challenging and stressful for the children but especially for the parents, too. The aim of this thesis is to identify the sources of stress and strains and their effects on the parents and to simultaneously show strategies for coping with them.
Methods: For this thesis a systematic literature search was done. The two medical data bases PubMed and CINAHL were searched through by using defined inclusion and exclusion criteria. A total of eight studies were included in the work.
Results: In the paediatric intensive care unit parents are confronted with several sources of stress. The most often mentioned sources are the uncertainty about the future and decisional conflicts, the environment of the intensive care unit, the alteration of the parental role according to the admission, the confrontation with a high emotional intensity, the changes in the family and relationship needs as well as the communication with the medical staff. The physical and psychological consequences of these stressors are, for example, the development of a post – traumatic stress disorder, increased anxiety or an anxiety disorder, the development of depression and a massively increased sense of stress. To reduce strain and stress the coping mechanisms social – support, educational
programs, the method of kangaroo – care, the adequate communication, and the problem – focused or emotion – focused coping are helpful.
Discussion: Mothers and fathers in paediatric intensive care units are exposed to huge stressors with heavy effects on their mental health. To be able to successfully compensate these stresses, it is necessary to train and sensitise the medical staff for these themes. Furthermore, the development or introduction of more parenting programmes are suitable approaches. In the future further large-scale studies that also include fathers as an individual factor are urgently needed in this area, too.
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Background: Nowadays, because of the improvement of the medical and technical development, very preterm born or critically ill children have a higher chance of survival.
Therefore, they need to be admitted and treated at a hospital with a neonatal or paediatric intensive care unit. This environment can be very challenging and stressful for the children but especially for the parents, too. The aim of this thesis is to identify the sources of stress and strains and their effects on the parents an...
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