Date of Award

2003

Degree Name

Nursing

College

College of Health Professions

Type of Degree

M.S.

Document Type

Thesis

First Advisor

Linda Scott

Second Advisor

Karen Stanley

Third Advisor

Lou Ann Hartley

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify if the factors which indicate parental satisfaction of parents who have children admitted to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) were being attained. The research questions were: 1) Was there a relationship between healthcare environment and parent satisfaction; 2) Was there a relationship between patient care and parent satisfaction; 3) Was there a relationship between communication and parent satisfaction? Parental satisfaction will be defined as meeting the parent’s perceived needs of the child and family during admission to the PICU (McPherson, 1999). This study used McPherson’s Parental Satisfaction Survey (PSS). The conceptual framework for this study was based on Watson’s Transpersonal Human Carative Factors.

Design: The PSS is a 24 question survey scored using a Likert scale and a socio- demographic survey that includes three open ended questions to indicate most liked and least liked aspects of the PICU admit and suggestions for improvement. Data for this survey will be collected within the months of March and May of 2003.

Method: Data was collected from 101 parents whose child received care in this Appalachian PICU. The PSS measured three domains of caring: (a) hospital environment, (b) patient care, and (c) communication.

Findings: The results of this study found very high correlations for hospital environment (r=.75, p

Conclusion: Watson’s Theoretical Framework was used in this study to closely examine the inter-personal health care member to parent/patient interaction. This study has indicated a very high parental satisfaction correlation with hospital environment, patient care and communication administered in this facility. The results of the PSS report a Cronbach’s coefficient alpha yielding α =.89, indicating that the study is reliable. Continuing research is needed to discover and assess new aspects of parental satisfaction of patient care in the PICU.

Subject(s)

Pediatric intensive care.

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