Family Support Practices to Impact Stress Scores in Parents of Critically Ill Children.

Background: When a child becomes critically ill and hospitalized in intensive care, this can be emotionally and physically traumatic for parents.

Objective: The purpose of the initiative was to utilize a stress screening tool to quantify parental stress and examine the use of family support services as a way to impact stress scores.

Methods: The Family Stress Thermometer (FST) was introduced and parents were asked to circle their stress level at up to three time points. Along with recorded stress scores, resources accessed were documented, how often it was utilized, and parental suggestions that might ease stressors recorded.

Results: The results indicate the FST accurately recorded elevated stress levels in parents with critically ill children, analysis showed a statistically significant decrease in the stress levels of parents over time.

Conclusions: This project appears to validate parental distress levels as a modifiable risk factor.

Implications for nursing: The FST was cost-effective and easy to administer. As part of comprehensive plans of care for families, interprofessional teams can work to design support services that meet individualized needs of parents with critically ill children. Partnering with parents to quantify their stress and responding to their needs will insure the likelihood of this happening.