Investigating the Effects of Spiritual Self-Care Training on Psychological Stress of Mothers with Preterm Infants Admitted in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Lecturer, Department of Pediatric Nursing, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.

2 M.Sc. Student of Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.

3 Associate Professor, Department of Neonatology, School of Medicine, Tabriz University of Medical Science, Tabriz, Iran.

4 Ph.D. Student of Spiritual Care, Cancer Research Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.

5 Ph.D. Student of Nursing, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.

Abstract

Introduction: Stress resulting from premature delivery and its special care harms the mother psychologically and physically vastly and has a negative impact on psychological stress of the mothers. The present study investigated the effects of spiritual self-care training on the psychological stress of the mothers with premature infants admitted in neonatal intensive care unit.
Methods: This clinical trial was conducted in 2013 on 60 mothers of preterm infants in Omolbanin and Ghaem hospitals of Mashhad, Iran. Mothers were divided into two groups of intervention and control. The mothers of two groups filled DTS (depression-tension-stress) form at the first, the end and the follow up period. They were trained for 14 days (15 minutes/day) to know more about the babies' condition. The intervention group also received spiritual self-care education for 6 sessions as 45 minutes/every other day. We followed up after two weeks by calling them twice a week. Data were analyzed by SPSS software version 16, Kolmogorov-Smirnov, Shapiro Wilk, analysis of variance with repeated measures, independent t-test and chi-square tests. P value less than 0.05 was considered significant.
Results: Mean of DTS scores before the intervention was 38.5±7.6 in control group and 35.4±7.2 in intervention group and independent t-test shows no significant difference in DTS between two groups (p=0.112). After the intervention, mean of DTS was 33.7±7.0 in control group and 41.9±6.7 in intervention group and independent t-test shows significant difference in DTS before and after the intervention (p=0.000). At follow up period, mean of DTS was 39.1±7.7 in control group and 42.2±6.4 in intervention group that was not statistically significant between both groups (p=0.106)
Conclusion: Spiritual care training decreasespsychological stress and improves quality of life in mothers of premature infants admitted in neonatal intensive care unit.
 

Keywords


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