HOSPITALIZED CHILDREN'S PARENTS' ANXIETY IN CRITICAL CARE UNITS

Child hospitalization is a potentially stressful process that affects both patients and family members. Objective: Describe the anxiety that the parents of admitted children at a Intensive Care Units, Pediatric (PICU) and/or Neonatal (NICU) during the first week of hospitalization. Material and method: Observational study, descriptive, transversal conducted at the Gregorio Maranon Hospital, in PICU and NICU. The inclusion criteria were: patients who didn't exceed the week admitted but they were at hospital more than one day, patients whose therapeutic effort wasn't limited and spanish-speaker parents. The sample size was 60 parents. We designed a questionnaire to measure sociodemographic variables and others related with the social support. The resulting variable, anxiety, like State Anxiety (SA) and Trait Anxiety (TA) were determined by the STAI inventory. Results: All the parents showed anxiety, the average females SA was 44.59 (+/- 8.02) while the average of men was 44.32(+/- 6.69). The results show a TA average of 34.73 (+/- 4.09) in woman and 34.95(+/- 4.93) in men. 83% of the parents of the sample participated in their child caring, having this variable relationship with level of SA (p<0.05). Moreover, 98% of parents understood the information given and were satisfied with it. Conclusion: All the parents presented anxiety, both SA and TA. They felt informed and supported by nurse. All these actions are directed towards an integral attention taking into account the family as the unit.