A Qualitative Study Exploring the Needs of Turkish Mothers in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit

Aim: Mothers have different needs, depending on their cultural and religious backgrounds, and these need to be known and acknowledged by the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) professional staff. To date, limited studies have been conducted in Turkey, a majority Muslim country, which analyzes the needs of mothers whose children are in PICU. The purpose of this study was to explore parents' needs in a child hospital's PICU in Turkey. Materials and Methods: A descriptive exploratory qualitative study. Individual, semi-structured interviews of a purposive sample of 9 mothers were carried out between December 2013 and May 2014. The mothers who were enrolled to participate in the interviews were with an average age of 27.4 years in PICU of a major children's hospital in Turkey. Results: In the content analysis, the main themes of "being sure of receiving the best care, having needs fulfilled, being able to cope with emotional feelings" were created. Conclusion: This study presents the disruptions during the PICU process, the fact that it is a difficult process for the mothers and they have many needs during this process and these needs have to be fulfilled.