EXPLORING PARENTAL STRESS RELIEF FACTORS IN NEONATAL INTENSIVE CARE UNIT(S)

Parents play an important role in the care of infants in NICUs. Since parental support is an important part of the nurse's responsibility، this study was conducted to investigate the factors of parental stress relief. Qualitative content analysis was used in this study. Study participants included 21 parents، doctors and nurses in Isfahan hospitals who were selected by purposive sampling method. Based on the data analysis، three main categories were observed including supportive care factors، health care factors، and communication factors. Nurses performance in the NICU focuses on the survival and development needs of the infants. By taking into cconsideration that one of the tasks of neonatal nurses is providing proper care to the parents، awareness of the health care providers of parental stress relief can help them to reduce the stress of parents.