Assessment of psychological support and the role of nurses in communication with parents of children with congenital heart defects after cardiac surgery

Introduction: Communication skills of nurses represents an important aspect of nursing care, affecting psychological support and the relationship between medical staff and the parents of children with heart defects. Regardless of the state of health of children, parents are interested in all the information concerning their offspring, even if it is not relevant to the treatment process and health improvement. They ask whether the child has opened his/her eyes and moved his/her hand, or smiled. They ask about the events that they observe in the child every day at home. In the post-operative ward they can see the child up to three times a day for a few minutes. During this time, they want to satisfy their eyes, feel the touch, and give a small dose of parental love, to give them – the parents – the strength to survive until the next visit.

Aim of the study: To assess the level of psychological support and determination of the difficulty of direct contact of nursing staff with the parents of children after cardiac surgery in the postoperative ward.

Material and methods: The study included 50 parents visiting their children after cardiac surgery in the postoperative ward. The research tool was a self-designed questionnaire.

Results and conclusions: The results showed that direct contact of parents with post-operative ward nurses, having the character of intensive therapy, had a significant impact on mitigating the emotions of the parents and gave a sense of security of their children. The psychological support they received from the parents of nurses was evaluated as an important element of parent-nurse communication.