Meaning Making While Your Child is in Intensive Care
A quarter of a million children and teenagers are hospitalized annually in Pediatric Intensive Care Units (PICUs) in North America. Having a child hospitalized in a PICU is stressful and affects the mood and coping of their parents. The investigators' prior work has shown how narrative medicine may help. Narrative medicine includes at least one session reading and then having a guided discussion of a poem or short story. The readings are individually selected by the Narrative Medicine Coordinator who also provides a guided writing exercise (in the form of poetry, creative non-fiction, journaling, or fiction). After writing, the parent/guardian had the option to share their writing out loud with the Narrative Medicine Coordinator. At the end of each session, the parent/guardian receives personalized writing prompts they are encouraged to use writing each day. The Investigators want to see how this session helps parents make sense of their time in the PICU and how it may help them cope. The investigators ask participants to fill out some surveys when they enroll and three days after their session.
Conditions:
🦠 Narrative Medicine
🗓️ Study Start (Actual) 9 November 2022
🗓️ Primary Completion (Estimated) 31 December 2024
✅ Study Completion (Estimated) 31 December 2024
👥 Enrollment (Estimated) 40
🔬 Study Type INTERVENTIONAL
📊 Phase NA
Locations:
📍 Akron, Ohio, United States

📋 Eligibility Criteria

Description

    Inclusion Criteria:

    • * Legal guardian 18 years or older of a child under age 18 years in the PICU at time of enrollment and on PICU service
    • * Able to read and write English
    • * Patient PICU admission is minimum of hospitalization day 3

    Exclusion Criteria:

    • * Child admitted to PICU as overflow from any other critical care area and/or not on PICU service
    • * Parent is an Akron Children's Hospital Palliative Care employee
    • * Parent/legal guardian is less than 18 years old
    • * Spouse or partner enrolled in a writing intervention study
    • * Enrollment in this study on a prior PICU admission
Ages Eligible for Study: 18 Years to N/A (ADULT, OLDER_ADULT)
Sexes Eligible for Study: ALL
Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

🗓️ Study Record Dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Registration Dates

  • First Submitted 14 November 2022
  • First Submitted that Met QC Criteria 22 November 2022
  • First Posted 25 November 2022

Study Record Updates

  • Last Update Submitted that Met QC Criteria 10 July 2024
  • Last Update Posted 11 July 2024
  • Last Verified July 2024