Experience of Families During Admission of Their Minors to a Paediatric Intensive Care Unit: A Phenomenological Study

TL;DR

This study explores how families cope emotionally and practically when their child is admitted to a pediatric intensive care unit.

Contribution

The study identifies two main categories of family experiences and coping strategies during prolonged ICU admissions.

Findings

Families experience a range of emotions including fear, anxiety, and loneliness during prolonged ICU stays.

Training and support for families are essential to help them adapt to the new situation and manage health changes.

The study highlights the importance of an integrative approach to support families in the ICU setting.

Abstract

Being admitted to a paediatric intensive care unit is a stressful situation for the minor and their family, causing emotional alterations that generate changes in psychological, physical and social aspects, as well as on how to take care of the minor.

The objective of this study was to explore the coping strategies experienced by families who have a minor admitted to the paediatric intensive care unit.

Phenomenological qualitative research study. A sample of 12 participants was obtained from families who had a prolonged admission to the paediatric intensive care unit of a minimum duration of 3 months and who were not in an end‐of‐life situation. The data analysis was carried out by deepening the study theme during the data collection of the three group interviews conducted.

This study is part of a predoctoral research project approved by the Ethics Committee of the Vall d'Hebrón University Hospital in Barcelona (approval code: PRAMI‐273/2015).

Two main categories were identified that emerged from the families' perceptions related admission of their minors to the paediatric intensive care unit and their subsequent adaptation to the new situation: (1) Family self‐perception: the families' own perceptions of different feelings and emotions experienced during admission and their interpretations are collected. (2) Role of the caregiver: understood as the families' perceptions of the capacity and willingness to face the new situation in the child's health‐disease process; and 10 subcategories: training, comfort, confidence, fear, anxiety, impotence, loneliness, will, adaptability and reference family group.

The findings show the need to carry out an integrative approach to families which coexist in a paediatric intensive care unit; through the training of these families to be able to cope with health changes.