Biography
Biography: Saleheh Tajalli
Abstract
Hospitalization behind the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) closed doors separates neonates from their parents and causes anxiety in the parent’s minds. Nurses can provide a great volume of information in a short period by telenursing.
We aimed to evaluate the effects of telenursing throughout phone calls on the anxiety levels in parents with neonates, hospitalized in the neonatal intensive care unit.
This before-after Quasi-experimental study, with a control group, was conducted among premature neonates’ parents. They were selected through the convenience sampling method. Then they were enrolled into intervention and control groups, randomly. In the intervention group, fifteen telephonic conversations between parents and nurses were done totally for 15 days. During these phone contacts, the researcher provided information to one of the parents about the neonate's respiration, recent vital signs, consciousness level, sleeping rhythm, feeding. The data was collected by using the self-report Beck Anxiety Inventory, and socio-demographics questionnaires. The Beck Anxiety Inventory was filled out once before the intervention and then after phone calls on the first day and fifth, tenth and fifteenth days of admission in the intervention groups. Also, this filled out in control groups then they were compared.
The findings indicated that there was a significant difference in terms of anxiety in the intervention group before (51.80 ± 11.2) and after (25.1 ± 3.4). There was a significant statistical difference between the intervention group and the control group in the fifth, tenth and fifteen days of hospitalization (p ≤ 0.001). The anxiety level in the control group before (52.45 ± 11.9) and after (50.43 ± 10.18) showed no significant difference.
According to the results, considering telenursing in the educational and care context of neonatal parents is recommended