Abstract
Chronic conditions affect approximately 31% of children less than 18 years of age of which 2% have severe conditions. Advances in medical and surgical technologies have created and maintained this growing population of children. Many of these medically fragile children have an unknown life expectancy and face a future that is uncertain and unpredictable. Caring for such a child is a difficult and challenging job. Children with chronic conditions who become hospitalized with an acute episodic illness may stress the mother even more. The purpose of this case study was to investigate a mother's perceptions of her experience during the acute episodic hospitalization of a 3-6 year old child who also had a chronic condition. The subject interviewed was a mother of a 6 year old boy who had multiple chronic problems and disabilities and who had an episodic hospitalization. Using naturalistic inquiry, data were obtained through three interviews, an observation, and field notes. Analysis of data was done following the coding method suggested by Bogdan and Biklen. The data provide an emic perspective of the mother's relationship with nurses, other health care professionals, and family members, and the impact each one had as she experienced her child's hospitalization. A total of 15 themes that clustered within six primary categories emerged. Overall, the data gleaned confirmed the lack of communication between the mother and health care professionals, the need to implement family centered care, the problems encountered during the transfer of the child from home to hospital and hospital to home, and the impact a child with a chronic condition/disabilities has on family members, especially the mother. The results of the study are based on one mother's lived experience therefore the findings are not generalizable. However, it is hoped that the knowledge gleaned through this mother's perceptions will impact the practice of child health nurses, and lead to improved parent/professional partnerships and patient/family services.
Sigma Membership
Kappa Gamma
Type
Dissertation
Format Type
Text-based Document
Study Design/Type
Case Study/Series
Research Approach
Qualitative Research
Keywords:
Ill Children, Mother's Stress, Caregiver Strain
Advisors
Woog, Pierre
Degree
PhD
Degree Grantor
Adelphi University
Degree Year
1998
Recommended Citation
Steckel, Arleen N., "A mother's lived experience during an acute episodic hospitalization of a child with a chronic condition: A case study" (2019). Dissertations. 1146.
https://www.sigmarepository.org/dissertations/1146
Rights Holder
All rights reserved by the author(s) and/or publisher(s) listed in this item record unless relinquished in whole or part by a rights notation or a Creative Commons License present in this item record.
All permission requests should be directed accordingly and not to the Sigma Repository.
All submitting authors or publishers have affirmed that when using material in their work where they do not own copyright, they have obtained permission of the copyright holder prior to submission and the rights holder has been acknowledged as necessary.
Review Type
None: Degree-based Submission
Acquisition
Proxy-submission
Date of Issue
2019-09-10
Full Text of Presentation
wf_yes
Description
This dissertation has also been disseminated through the ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database. Dissertation/thesis number: 9903662; ProQuest document ID: 304410738. The author still retains copyright.