PEDIATRIC INTENSIVE CARE UNIT: EXPECTATIONS AND FEELINGS OF PARENTS OF SERIOUSLY ILL CHILDREN

Abstract

Objective: To understand the expectations and feelings of parents during hospitalization of seriously ill child in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. Material and Methods: This was a qualitative study with phenomenological approach. The information was collected through semi-structured interviews from March to April 2014 and analyzed by the content analysis method. A total of 10 parents participated in this study in a public hospital in the city of Porto Velho-RO. Results: The results show that family members are the basis for coping with the disease for parents who are with their hospitalized children. Factors such as religiousness and spirituality were associated with support, whereas faith and hope help to relieve pain and suffering as well as drive expectations for healing. Conclusion: The feelings described by the parents were related with despair, helplessness, pain, fear, anguish, many doubts about the diagnosis and prognosis, incapacitating them to develop their daily activities. While the parents associate the ICU with serious illness and death, their expectations are rooted in the awareness that this unit is also the site of recovery and reunion with life, with demonstration of confidence in the one who takes care of their child. DESCRIPTORS Unit Pediatric Intensive Care. Parents. Child.