Examining the effect of discharge plan on enabling mothers of preterm babies admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU)

Abstract

Background: The success of any system depends on having an accurate and comprehensive plan, and healthcare system is no exception. In this system several purposes are sought after, one is running continuing care program in which the discharge planning of patients is a key part and unique responsibilities in the nursing profession. The aim of this study is to examine the effect of discharge planning in enabling mothers of preterm babies admitted to NICU in 2015. Method: This study is a clinical trial where using sequential convenience sampling in which we selected 64 mothers of children admitted to NICU's teaching hospital in Isfahan. In this study mothers' empowerment program was divided into two parts: specialized and usual care in which training was run in 4 steps: from admission to 3 days later in form of face-to-face training, group training in 14 sessions, clinical education of babies at the request of parents, need assessment of nurses and researcher, and training of discharge. Then using a checklist data was collected in four stages of admission, a week after, discharge time, and 3 to 5 days after discharge. Data was analyzed using SPSS 16 through descriptive (mean and standard deviation) and inferential statistics of paired and independent t-test, and analysis of variance. Result: Mean enabling score had no significant differences between the two groups in usual care before intervention and a week after admission but it is interesting that at discharge (P<0.001) and 3 to 5 days after discharge (P<0.001) it was significantly higher in the experimental group than in the control group. The mean score of enabling in specialized care was not significantly different between the two groups in admission. However in three stages: one week after admission (P<0.001), discharge (P<0.001) and 3 to 5 days after discharge (P<0.001) it was significantly higher in the experimental group compared to the control group. Conclusion: The results of this study showed that the discharge planning is effective in enabling usual and specialized care of mothers. However it is clear that by running discharge planning, specialized enabling had more increase which makes it is the necessity in infants discharged from NICU. © 2018 Medknow. All rights reserved.