Page 43 - Petelin, Ana. 2020. Ed. Zdravje delovno aktivne populacije / Health of the Working-Age Population. Proceedings. Koper: University of Primorska Press.
P. 43
https://doi.org/10.26493/978-961-293-015-8.41-49
Health problems experienced by parents
of children in long-term hospital stay
Maria de Lurdes Lopes de Freitas Lomba1, Inês Abreu2, Rafaela Oliveira2,
Rodrigo Rato2, Rúben Pinto2, M. Sofia Macedo3
1 Health Sciences Research Unit: Nursing. Coimbra Nursing School Nursing, Portugal.
2 Coimbra Nursing School Nursing. Portugal.
3 Saudi Patient Safety center, Saudi Arabia
Abstract
Introduction: Nowadays, parental active engagement in children’
hospitalization has become an accepted feature. However, parental
finance, social and personal costs for their involvement in their child’s
care have received little attention. Moreover, a child’s hospitalization
is, frequently, an event that occurs, unexpectedly, having a significative
impact on parents’ health. There is a positive relationship between
parental anxiety and the length of the child’s hospital admission. Aim:
To synthesize and analyse the existing evidence on the health problems
experienced by parents of children in a long-term hospital stay. Method:
An integrative review was carried out, and scientific articles were
selected from the databases MEDLINE, SciELO and CINAHL. Only
parents of children (with ages between 0 and 18 years) submitted to long-
term hospitalizations were included. Parents with any kind of mental or
psychiatric disorder were excluded from the review. A six-step method
was used to develop the revision and to analyse the results. Results: A
child’s hospital stay holds major changes in the routines and well-being
of a family. Parents are in need of care from nurses whose primary
focus are children. Children’ hospitalization often leads to parental
anxiety as well as stress and sleep disorders. This condition can also
trigger other pathologies such as hypertension, obesity, diabetes mellitus
type II or stroke. Anxiety has higher rates on mothers of male infants.
Conclusion: A long-term child´s hospitalization brings an important
and challenging parental adjustment affecting their health and well-
being. Thereby, nurses’ interventions should focus on identifying the
adversities experienced by parents, so that actions can be taken that will
improve the adaptation process, and consequently promote the parents’
well-being in addition to their children’s healing process. To this point,
meeting family‐centred care expectations is an additional paediatrics’
Health problems experienced by parents
of children in long-term hospital stay
Maria de Lurdes Lopes de Freitas Lomba1, Inês Abreu2, Rafaela Oliveira2,
Rodrigo Rato2, Rúben Pinto2, M. Sofia Macedo3
1 Health Sciences Research Unit: Nursing. Coimbra Nursing School Nursing, Portugal.
2 Coimbra Nursing School Nursing. Portugal.
3 Saudi Patient Safety center, Saudi Arabia
Abstract
Introduction: Nowadays, parental active engagement in children’
hospitalization has become an accepted feature. However, parental
finance, social and personal costs for their involvement in their child’s
care have received little attention. Moreover, a child’s hospitalization
is, frequently, an event that occurs, unexpectedly, having a significative
impact on parents’ health. There is a positive relationship between
parental anxiety and the length of the child’s hospital admission. Aim:
To synthesize and analyse the existing evidence on the health problems
experienced by parents of children in a long-term hospital stay. Method:
An integrative review was carried out, and scientific articles were
selected from the databases MEDLINE, SciELO and CINAHL. Only
parents of children (with ages between 0 and 18 years) submitted to long-
term hospitalizations were included. Parents with any kind of mental or
psychiatric disorder were excluded from the review. A six-step method
was used to develop the revision and to analyse the results. Results: A
child’s hospital stay holds major changes in the routines and well-being
of a family. Parents are in need of care from nurses whose primary
focus are children. Children’ hospitalization often leads to parental
anxiety as well as stress and sleep disorders. This condition can also
trigger other pathologies such as hypertension, obesity, diabetes mellitus
type II or stroke. Anxiety has higher rates on mothers of male infants.
Conclusion: A long-term child´s hospitalization brings an important
and challenging parental adjustment affecting their health and well-
being. Thereby, nurses’ interventions should focus on identifying the
adversities experienced by parents, so that actions can be taken that will
improve the adaptation process, and consequently promote the parents’
well-being in addition to their children’s healing process. To this point,
meeting family‐centred care expectations is an additional paediatrics’
