Paper
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
654
Follow up care of Premature Babies in Russia: Evaluating Parental Experiences and Associated Services
Marina V. Boykova, RN, BSc, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Children's Hospital #1, St Petersburg, Russia, Russia and Carole Kenner, DNS, RNC, FAAN, College of Nursing, University of Oklahoma Health Science Center, Oklahoma City, OK, USA.
The purpose of this descriptive, correlational study was to explore the experiences of parents of prematurely born infants after hospital discharge as they transition to home. The time period when parents take over the caregiving responsibilities at home can be stressful. The aims of this study were to: 1. determine possible relationships between parental experiences and gestational age of their infants and 2. describe the parents’ perceived evaluation of services provided for them and their baby once home. The Kenner Transition Model (1988, 1994) was used as the theoretical framework to guide this research. Parental experiences and their evaluation of services were measured with the Kenner’s Transition Questionnaire (1994). Data were collected from a convenience sample of 32 mothers whose premature infants were hospitalised in the neonatal intensive care and intermediate neonatal care units at the Children’s Hospital, Saint Petersburg, Russia. Study findings provided evidence that no relationship existed between parental experiences and gestational age of their infants during the transition period from hospital to home. Findings regarding maternal concerns after discharge were similar to those previously reported among the U.S., Canada, and Russia studies that focused on transition to home. Maternal experience, both in the hospital and at home, was found to shape the mothers’ transition and the resulting potential problems, and not merely the geographic setting or culture. Mothers of premature infants expressed the need for a more individualized approach to their infant’s specific needs and their own concerns. A lower caregiving competency of the child health care clinic health care professionals, as perceived by the infants’ mothers, in caring for post-discharge premature infants suggested the need for special training programs on neonatal transitional care. The positive correlation between grief in parents and birthweight requires further investigation.