Impact of Neonatal Counselling on Parental Stress in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit: A Quasi-experimental Study

Introduction: There are various reasons for stress in the parents of infants admitted in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) e.g., sickness, environment and communication with healthcare staff. An effective communication and structured counselling may help in alleviating the parental stress. Aim: To determine the impact of counselling in alleviating parental stress of the sick babies admitted in the NICU. Materials and Methods: This quasi-experimental study was conducted in NICU of a tertiary care hospital during AprilSeptember 2020. The babies with a Score for Neonatal Acute physiology with Perinatal Extension II (SNAPE II) score ≥7 at the time of admission were included. Either parent was counseled daily by physician in charge of the unit for at least one counselling session and more so depending on the clinical condition of the baby. The parental stress was evaluated on Parental Stressor Scale: NICU (PSS: NICU) scale at two time points: 24 hours after admission and subsequently after 3 to 5 days of counselling. This scale uses the stressor points in four domains (Physical environment, Infant behaviour and appearance, Parental role alteration and Parental relationships with the staff of the unit). Each item was rated on a 5-point Likert scale; 0 being least stress and 5 being maximum stress. The overall pre and postcounselling score was compared using t-test. Results: There were total 61 study subjects. The mean gestational age and birth weight was 343/7±41/7 weeks and 2225±598 grams respectively for the neonates. The mean SNAPE II score was 27.7±18.76. There was significant reduction in cumulative score on PISS: NICU scale after counselling (7.41 to 3.55, p