PARENTS' FEAR AND DISTRESS DURING CHILD INPATIENT CARE

Hospitalization of child is one of the most stressful events of life for parents and children.this fear and stress n1ay affect the process of treatment. since there is no information available aboutthe source of distress and needs of iranian parents during the inpatient care of their children, wedesigned a research in order to discover the main source of worries and fears among parents. in thiscross-sectional study 120 parents of 88 children were interviewed by structured questionnaire during thecourse of events when their child needed inpatient care. twenty close ended questions were asked inorder to assess the major source of worries and distress. factor analyses were used as a statistical testfor data analysis. the rotated factors pattern isolated 7 factors that accounted for 61.600/0 of variancesand their factor loading was above 0.5: i) environment adjustment, 2) lack of prehospitalizationprogram, 3) lack of comlnunication skills of caregiver, 4) parental skills, 5) hospitalization expenses, 6)lose of independence and 7) lack of information. other items of questionnaire were eliminated becausetheir loading factors vere less than 0.5. this finding suggests parents' education before and during thechild inpatient care as a major need of parents. by parents education there is a chance of reducing their'orries and fear and improve their parental skills. offering prehospitalization programs also provide agood opportunity for parents to ask questions from staff members and may help theln to adjustthemselves with new environment.