A Nursing Intervention to Enhance Comfort and Promote Psychological Well-Being in Children During and Following PICU Hospitalization: A Pilot Study

Background: Children who become critically ill and require Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) hospitalization may develop negative psychological outcomes following discharge. Despite this concern, there have been no systematic attempts to intervene with critically ill children to promote well-being, and prevent long term sequelae. The aim of this pilot study is to test the feasibility and acceptability of a PICU nursing intervention that seeks to enhance child comfort and promote sleep quality and duration in the PICU, potentially promoting psychological well-being post-discharge. The intervention is based on principles of Developmental Care, a philosophy of care that includes the child and family, and incorporates intervention strategies to reduce environmental stressors and improve quality of life. In view of the critically ill child's state of physical and emotional vulnerability, and the highly noxious environmental stimuli they are exposed to in the PICU, our proposed intervention has the potential to enhance physiological and psychological stability in this population. We will examine intervention effects on children's quality of sleep and sleep duration in the PICU, psychological distress post-PICU, and on parent anxiety during and following their child's PICU hospitalization.

Objectives: (1) To test the feasibility and acceptability of a PICU comfort care intervention that can be administered by nursing staff; (2) to examine the feasibility and acceptability of data collection procedures; (3) to pilot test outcome measures; and (4) to determine effect sizes to inform sample size calculation for a future multi-centred randomized controlled trial (RCT).

Design: A pilot study will be conducted using RCT design.

Outcomes: Results of this pilot study will provide essential information regarding feasibility of recruitment and randomization, as well as feasibility and acceptability of the developmental care intervention and data collection procedures - all of which will be incorporated into a full-scale RCT. While sample size is insufficient to allow statistical analyses, we will obtain initial estimates regarding changes in sleep duration, sleep fragmentation, and psychological well-being post-intervention.