THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN NURSING SUPPORT AND PARENT’S STRESS IN MOTHERS OF PREMATURE’S INFANTS IN NEONATAL INTENSIVE CARE UNIT

The birth and hospitalization of a preterm infant in the intensive care unit is a
stressful experience for parents. But on the other hand, supporting parents has been suggested as one of
the main nursing roles. This study has been conducted to determine the relationship between nursing
support and parents stress in mothers with premature infants in Neonatal Intensive Care Units.
Material & Methods: In a descriptive correlative study, 153mothers with premature infants in Neonatal
Intensive Care Units participated in convenient sampling method continuously. Data was collected
through using demographic questionnaire, Miles' Nurse- Parent Support Tool and Parental Stress Scale.
The Parental Stress Scale included light and sounds of NICU environment, the infant's appearance and
behaviour and parents' role changes. The Nurse –Parent Support Tool included four dimensions:
emotional support, information-communication support, self –esteem support, and qualitative support.
Data was analysed by utilizing descriptive and analytic statistics including Pearson correlation
coefficient and multivariate linear regression analysis in SPSS software.
Results: Pearson correlation coefficient showed that among stressors, only factors related to light and
sounds of NICU environment in all dimensions had direct relationship with the total score of received
nursing support but it was poor (r=0.283p 0.05) and it was not meaningful according to multivariate
linear regression analysis.86% of mothers received low nursing support and only 13.1% received high
nursing support and 60.8% of them reported a lot of parental stress.
Conclusion: It seems that the amount of received nursing support by mothers to decrease parental stress
was not enough so, planning to promote professional nursing support of mothers with premature infants
in neonatal intensive care units is necessary