Stress Decrease in Mothers of Children, Discharged from Pediatric Surgical Units: A Four-staged Follow up Care Program Implementation

Abstract

Objective: Children are damage-prone population whose illness is stressful for their parents. Family stress may endure long after discharge and proper remedies need to be employed. The present study was conducted to determine the level of mother’s stress whose children were discharged from pediatric surgical units and to assess the effects of a four-staged follow up care program on the level of this stress. Method: This is a quasi-experimental research, conducted in pre and post interventions on 64 mothers whose children were hospitalized in the surgical units of selective hospitals of the Isfahan university of medical sciences. Participants were randomly classified into 2 control and experimental groups. Demographic data questionnaire and stress measurement scale (SRI) were the data collection tools. The interventions were done by a four-staged follow up program. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, independent t test, and variant analysis with repeated observations. Results: The result of the study indicates that the maximum scores of stress were 115 and 103 in experimental and control groups respectively. Stress mean score of the experimental group was meaningfully less than that of control group straightaway, one week, and one month after the intervention (P<0.0001). Conclusion: We can conclude that, with the implementation of a four-staged follow up program, there would be a meaningful difference in the stress level of the mothers of operated children after discharge, in such a way that the family members, especially the mothers, would be more efficacious.