Paper
Thursday, 20 July 2006
This presentation is part of : Strategies for the Chronically Ill
Two Decades of Evidence to Support Implementation of the COPE Program as Standard Practice with Parents of Young Hospitalized/Critically Ill Children & Premature Infants
Bernadette Mazurek Melnyk, PhD, RN, CPNP/NPP, FAAN1, Nancy Fischbeck Feinstein, RNC, PhD2, and Eileen Fairbanks, RN, MS2. (1) College of Nursing, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA, (2) School of Nursing, Center for Research and Evidence-Based Practice, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, USA
Learning Objective #1: Discuss the accumulated evidence to support the efficacy of the COPE Program with hospitalized/critically ill children, premature infants and their parents.
Learning Objective #2: Describe implications for translating the COPE program into clinical practice.
     Hospitalization is a very stressful experience for both young children and parents, with even greater stress for families whose infants and children experience an unplanned hospitalization or intensive care unit stay. Evidence from multiple studies has supported the adverse effects following hospitalization for many premature infants and young children, including negative mental health/behavioral outcomes. Parents of hospitalized/ critically ill children and premature infants also are at high risk for mental health problems following hospitalization.     The purpose of this presentation is to summarize and critically appraise the body of evidence from 6 experimental studies that tested the efficacy of the COPE (Creating Opportunities for Parent Empowerment) program on hospitalized/critically ill children, premature infants and their parents. Across the studies, parents who received COPE had less stress/anxiety and PTSD symptoms than parents who were in attention-control groups. COPE parents also had stronger beliefs in their ability to support their children and participated more in their children's care than control parents. COPE children exhibited fewer externalizing behaviors and had better developmental outcomes than control children. Implications for using the COPE program as standard practice in pediatric/neonatal intensive care units and children’s hospitals will be highlighted. Future recommendations for research also will be discussed.

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See more of The 17th International Nursing Research Congress Focusing on Evidence-Based Practice (19-22 July 2006)