Paper
Wednesday, July 21, 2004
This presentation is part of : Special Session: Improving the Psychosocial Care and Mental Health/Coping Outcomes of Critically Ill Children and Parents: Evidence to Guide Practice
The Effectiveness of Parent-Focused Interventions to Improve Mental Health/Coping Outcomes in Critically Ill Children and Their Parents
Bernadette Mazurek Melnyk, PhD, RN, CPNP, FAAN, School of Nursing, Center for Research and Evidence-Based Practice, School of Nursing, Center for Research and Evidence-Based Practice, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, USA
Because it has been well substantiated in the literature that high parental anxiety, stress, and depression negatively impact children’s outcomes, it is important for clinicians to implement evidence-based intervention programs to enhance parental coping with childhood critical illness with the expectation of improving both parent and child outcomes. Therefore, the purpose of this presentation will be to provide an evidence synthesis to determine the effectiveness of parent-focused interventions to improve the mental health/coping outcomes of critically ill children and their parents.

A search for evidence included the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, ACP Journal Club, MEDLINE, CINAHL, and Psych Info data bases. In addition, the Computer Retrieval of Information on Scientific Projects (CRISP) database also was searched for federally funded studies between 1988 and 2003. References from the studies found in these databases also were searched. These methods revealed a total of 5 experimental studies designed to test the effects of interventions targeted to parents of critically ill children.

Although there are studies that have demonstrated the effectiveness of interventions in improving short- and long-term outcomes in critically ill children and parents, these interventions are not being routinely implemented in pediatric intensive care units (PICUs) throughout the country. As such, there is an urgent need for widespread dissemination of these interventions and to create an evidence-based clinical practice guideline that incorporates them as the routine standard of care. The adoption of a clinical practice guideline that incorporates parent-focused, evidence-based interventions by PICUs throughout the country would promote positive outcomes in this high-risk population of children and parents.

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Sigma Theta Tau International
July 21, 2004