Creating a home with a critically ill child: a qualitative study exploring the experiences of parents of children admitted to paediatric critical care following treatment in neonatal care

Background

Survival of children with complex medical conditions has increased over time. Around 5% of children admitted to a neonatal unit (NNU) later have an admission to a paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) in early life. No work to date has explored the needs of parents who have a child admitted to both of these healthcare settings.

Objective

The overall aim of this study was to understand parents' experiences as they navigate the transition between admissions to the neonatal unit and the paediatric intensive care unit. This paper reports on one of the themes (creating a home) identified inductively from the dataset.

Methods

We used a qualitative research design using semi-structured interviews with parents who had a child (or children) who had been admitted to neonatal care after birth and then subsequently were also admitted to a PICU. We recruited a national purposive sample of parents with experiences of having a child treated on NNU before being admitted to PICU. We undertook the interviews and transcribed them before taking a reflexive thematic analysis approach.

Results

A total of 15 mothers and three fathers, of 17 children, were interviewed between January and March 2022. ‘We identified ‘creating a home’ as a key inductive theme with three sub-themes: (1) developing parental roles; (2) creating a physical home and (3) creating core memories.

Conclusions

There is a growing cohort of children living with chronic health conditions. In this work, we have explored how their parents establish a home whilst often spending significant periods within the public arena of intensive care. Families across settings need support from healthcare professionals to help them develop their role as parents, build a home and to create memories together.