Implications based on these results support the need for critical care nurses to use caution to avoid overestimating parental stress. Parents should be included in care of the child whenever possible,· and recognized for their uniqu~ ability to parent their child, even when critically ill.

Abstract

Th~ admission of a child to the PICU is stressful t6 parents of that child. Critical care nurses caring f~r these critically ill children and their families are in a unique position to assess parental str~ss. The purpose of this st~dy was to compare nurses' (n=30) and parents• (n=30) perceptions of· parental strassors in the PICU, as,measured by scores 6n the Parental Str~ssor s6ale: Pediatric Intensive Care· (PSS: PICU) developed by Miles and Carter (1982). Differences between parents 1 and nurses' mean scores on the total PSS:PICU and each of seven dimertsibnai scores were analyzed using paired t-tests. Significantly higher scores were found for nurses in bo€h total PSS:PICU and four of seven sub,scales. Analysis of mean scores between mothers and fath~rs, nurses who ~ere afid were n6t parants, arid nurses wfth less than ·five and greater than fi'(e year-s PICU experience showed ·no significant differences. Parents who experienced unplanned PICU admissions scored signiticantly _higher than parents whose child's admission was planned on the dimension of child's appearance. Implications based on these results support the need for critical care nurses to use caution to avoid overestimating parental stress. Parents should be included in care of the child whenever possible,· and recognized for their uniqu~ ability to parent their child, even when critically ill.