This investigation was designed to identify stressors perceived by parents, who have a critically ill newborn.
The intent of this investigation was to develop appropriate nursing interventions for parents of critically ill newborn.
Also, this information can be utilized as the data in planning nursing strategies to help parents of critically ill newborn to cope more effectively in reducing parental stress.
The instrument for this study wai based on four kinds of characteristics of parental stress in NICU developed by Miles and Crter(1991) and adapted by researcher. The parental stress tool consisted of 34 items, each with a five point rating scale.
Raw data were collected using questionnaires from March 27-April 29, 1995.56 parents of newborn were in NICU were interviewed, in tow university hospitals and one medical center in Seoul.
In this study, the reliability coefficients by Cronbach´s a test were 0.93 for the stress scale. The SPSS program was used for statistical analysis and the data was analyzed in terms of frequency(percentage), Mean and Standard Deviation, t-test, F-test, and ANOVA.
The results of this investigation were as follows:
1. The stress producing factors as perceived by the subjects were analyzed according to four cathegories. The category that produced the most stress was changes in the infant´s appearance and behaviors:the mean sccor was 3.71. The second highest stress-producting was the parental role alteration with a mean of 3.59. The third was communication with a mean of 3.45. The fourth was sights and sounds of NICU with a mean of 3.08.
2. The total mean score was 3.48 points. The individual inems with the highest score were `separation for long periods´, `cessation of infants´ breathing´ =monitors and equipment´, `respirator dependent infants´, `Inability to protect infants from pain´, and `staff´s worried apperance´.
3. When the relationship of stress degree was compared to general characteristics, the factors that most affected parental stress were age(t= 0.974, P= 0.050), and sex of parents (t=0.674, p=0.015).
4. The stress level of mothers was higher(3.696) than that of fathers sampled(3.331),and the difference between mothers and fathers was statistically significant(y=0.674, P=0.015). And the way mothers and fathers rated categories of parental role alteration(t=0.637, P = 0.019), staff communication(t= 0.086, P= 0.033), and sights and sounds of NICU (t= 0.033, P=0.022) was significantly different. Further research is suggested, using a lager sample, with a final aim of replicating this study to developing and testing intervention protocol to reduce parental stress and help parents critically ill newborn during hospitalization.
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