The effects of nursing interventions on the anxiety levels of the mothers whose children are admitted to intensive child care unit

The present study was a semi-experimental study aiming to determine the effects of supportive nursing interventions considering the potential factors that may arouse mother?s anxiety levels during the admission of their infants to intensive care unit on the anxiety level of the mother before the discharge.The study was carried out among 70 mothers at Manisa İnternational Moris Şinasi Child Hospital and at the hospital of School of Medicine at Celal Bayar University between 1 April ? 31 May 2009. Participants of the study were assigned to control and experimental groups equally in number through matching with respect to some variables.As data collection tools, Personal Information Form, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, and Observation form for mother were used. After 24 fours the infants were admitted to the intensive care unit, the mothers in the experimental group were taught coping strategies. The other data collection tools were administered to the both groups during the first 60 minutes of the admission and 24 hours after the admission and before the discharge.The data obtained were analyzed through SPSS 15.0 program package. Statistical analyses, frequencies, percentages, Independent Samples t-test, unidirectional variance analysis (ANOVA) and tukey HSD test were used.The results of the study revealed that when the beck anxiety scores of the mother were examined, no significant difference was found between the anxiety mean scores of the mothers in the control and experimental groups obtained during the admission and 24 hours after the admission ( p>0.05). Yet, the mean score before the discharge was found to be 3.02 ? 1.87 for the experimental group mothers and 7.37 3.45 for the control group mothers, and the difference between the mean scores of the groups is statistically significant. (t:-6.537, p<0.05). Anxiety mean score of the experimental group mothers was found to be lower than that of the control group mothers. In this respect, it can be argued that supportive nursing interventions reduced the anxiety level of the experimental group mothers during the period before the discharge.When the state anxiety of the participants was examined, no difference was found between the mean scores of the control group and experimental group before admission to the hospital and during the first 24 hours of the admission ( p>0.05). On the other hand, mean score before the discharge was found to be 34.11 ? 4.47 for the experimental group mothers and 44.51 ? 5.96 for the control group mothers and the difference between the groups was statistically significant (t:-8.25, p<0.05). Anxiety mean score of the experimental group mothers was found to be lower than that of the control group mothers. This difference is thought to stem from the supportive nursing interventions provided for the experimental group mothers by the researcher, starting 24 hours after the admission.Key Words: Nursing Interventions, Anxiety , Mother