• Gillian Colville, Janet Darkins, Janet Hesketh, Virginia Bennett, John Alcock, and Jane Noyes.
• Paediatric Psychology Service, 2nd Floor Clare House, St George's Hospital, London SW17 0QT, United Kingdom. gcolvill@sgul.ac.uk
• Intensive Crit Care Nurs. 2009 Apr 1; 25 (2): 72-9.

ObjectivesIn this study, parents were asked which aspects of their experience of having a child in intensive care had caused them the most distress and how they continued to be affected by these experiences.Research MethodologySemi-structured interviews held with 32 mothers and 18 fathers of children admitted to a paediatric intensive care unit 8 months earlier, were audiotaped, transcribed and subjected to a thematic analysis.SettingThe setting was an eight-bed paediatric intensive care unit in an inner city teaching hospital.ResultsSignificant themes included the vividness of parents' memories of admission; the intensity of distress associated with times of transition and the lasting impact of their experience, in terms both of the ongoing need to protect their child and in relation to their priorities in life. Fathers reported different coping strategies, spent less time on the unit and were less likely than mothers to report fearing that their child would die.ConclusionsParents report significant and persisting distress. Further research is needed on how best to support them acutely and in the longer term.

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