Study to Assess the Effect of Nursing Interventions on the Stress Level of Parents of Neonates Admitted to Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

Abstract

Introduction: A pre-experimental study to assess the effect of nursing interventions on the stress level of parents of neonates admitted to NICU in selected hospital. The primary objective of the study was to assess the effectiveness of nursing intervention on parental stress among the parents of neonates admitted to NICU. Methods:The present study was conducted among 30 parents of neonates admitted to NICU in a government hospital of New Delhi. The purposive sampling technique was applied. Parents were assessed for stress level by using PSS: NICU (developed by Miles& Funk et al.). On the first day (within 24 hours of admission) followed by nursing interventions which included an informational session of 40 minutes for one time regarding introduction of NICU, indications for admission to NICU, routine care given by staff nurses and doctors to the neonates admitted to NICU, commonly used equipment's and disposable items at NICU, general instructions regarding the care of neonate at home or after discharge and danger signs for neonates. On the third day, parents were reassessed for parental stress score by using same PSS: NICU scale.Results: Out of 30 parents 21 were mothers and 9 were fathers. The mean pre-nursing intervention parental stress score of 72.9±12.98 were more than the mean posts nursing intervention parental stress score of 58.7±12.37 with mean difference of 14.2±5.61 which shows the significant reduction in stress level of parents of neonates admitted to NICU. The mean pre-nursing intervention parental stress score for other three subscales of PSS: NICU; 'sight and sound' 14±4.37, 'looks and behavior' 30.4±9.57, 'parental role' 28.5±4.92 was more than the mean post nursing intervention parental stress score for these three subscales; 'sight and sound'8.6±2.84, 'looks and behavior' 24.9±9.03 and 'Parental role' 25.1±4.44. These results showed that most leading cause of stress among all three subscales was parental role followed by looks and behavior and sight and sounds. The Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics using SPSS v.20. Conclusion:Nursing Intervention was effective in reducing the stress level of parents of neonates admitted to NICU.

Stress and stressors experienced by the parents of high‐risk neonates admitted in neonatal intensive care unit: Systematic review and meta‐analysis evidence available from India

“…Mothers who directly breastfed their babies had significantly lower stress than mothers who did not (Chourasia et al, 2013). In the present study, a higher mean score of maternal stress was identified in the area of 'relationship with baby and parental role alteration' (Agrawal & Gaur, 2016;Chourasia et al, 2013;Kumar & Mallick, 2020;Rai & Rani, 2019;Varma et al, 2019), physiological domain, emotional domain and cognitive domain (Gurgani & Jogi, 2018;Reetha, 2020;Sidhu, 2016). Existing literature has stated that mothers experience higher levels of stress, depression due to child separation, child condition, equipment F I G U R E 3 Meta-analysis of maternal stress (PSS; NICU).…”

“…Twelve studies have reported that others experienced severe stress (Agrawal & Gaur, 2016;Ashwani et al, 2017;Chourasia et al, 2013;Das & Krishna, 2020;Ganguly et al, 2020;Kumar & Mallick, 2020;Mulla & Patel, 2021;Niranjan et al, 2015;Patil, 2014;Rai & Rani, 2019;Reetha, 2020;Varma et al, 2019). Five studies have reported that mothers experienced a moderate level of stress (Sheeba & Prabhu T, 2019;Gurgani & Jogi, 2018;Rajalakshmi & Kalavathi, 2017;Sharma, 2019;Sidhu, 2016). Two studies have reported that mothers experienced mild stress levels during neonatal admission to the NICU (Shanmugam & Ramachandra, 2015;Vinod, 2017).…”

“…Studies have highlighted that the age of mothers, education, occupation, monthly incomes of family, birth order of child and type of family (Patil, 2014;Sharma, 2019;Sidhu, 2016;Vinod, 2017), religion, number of children (Rajalakshmi & Kalavathi, 2017), number of days of hospitalisation, and maternal occupation have significantly associated with on mothers' stress (Reetha, 2020). Mothers had severe stress in the physiological domain, emotional domain and cognitive domain (Gurgani & Jogi, 2018;Reetha, 2020;Sidhu, 2016). Preterm birth, low birth weight and increasing days of hospital stay are the triggering factors for higher level of maternal stress (Vinod, 2017).…”

“…Fathers of very low birth weight neonates were stressed due to financial costs, alteration in their parental role and other home affairs (Dutta et al, 2016). Overtime, staff behaviour and alteration of parental role helped reduce their stress, but there was increasing stress due to lack of family support, home affairs and finances (Dutta et al, 2016;Gurgani & Jogi, 2018). Meta-analysis showed the pooled mean in the paternal stress level revealed the mean in baby looks and behaviour, being able to see the baby whenever they want) (Figure 5).…”

Stress and Coping Strategies among Mothers for Caring Premature Infant at Home

“…Currently, the identification of stress and coping strategies mothers use still focuses a lot on when the baby is in the NICU (Gurgani & Jogi, 2018;Patil, 2014;Paul et al, 2018;Rajalakshmi & Kalavathi, 2017Sharma, 2019Tajalli et al, 2022). In contrast, stress and coping strategies for mothers when caring for premature babies at home are still under-researched (de Castro Pereira et al, 2019).…”