Aim: Reducing stress factors of parents, children and health care staff in open paediatric intensive care units (PICUs).BackgroundIn Italy, there are 303 Intensive Care Units (ICUs), of these 99% have very stringent policies for visitors. In literature, it is reported that open PICUs have the potential to reduce stress factors in patients and their families. Some studies found that allowing parents to stay overnight in the paediatric intensive care unit reduced the level of stress in both parent and child. Materials and Methods: Through the FocusGroup with nurses, we obtained data that were then processed and included into separate tables for parents, patients and nurses, highlighting the strengths and the weaknesses, as well as the number of interventions for each category. Results:The three main categories of answers were obtained: 1) agreement with open PICUs (56%); 2) positive answers for parents staying next to their children overnight (75%); 3) during emergency procedures parents often interfered and this was seen as a weakness by nurses (80%). Conclusions:The presence of parents in the PICU was mainly judged positively both by nurses and parents, although some nurses claimed there were some weaknesses linked to the quality of the healthcare procedures. Another weakness was the interference of emotionally involved parents during emergency procedures.To achieve the desired outcomes and changes, we would suggest specific training sessions, briefings, improved facilities and psychological support for the staff.

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