Description

The Parental Stressor Scale: Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PSS: PICU) is a psychometric tool used to measure the perceived stress experienced by parents whose children are admitted to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU). It assesses the stressors related to the PICU environment, medical treatment, and concerns about the child’s health. The scale helps identify specific stress factors so that healthcare providers can offer targeted support to families in these critical settings.

Purpose and Use of Data from PSS: PICU

Identify Parental Stressors: The PSS: PICU is designed to measure different types of stress that parents experience while their child is hospitalized in the PICU. This includes the emotional, environmental, and medical aspects that can contribute to the overall stress level of the parents.

Improving PICU Environments: Data collected through this scale can guide healthcare staff in modifying their approach and environment to reduce parental stress. For example, improving communication between staff and parents, providing clear explanations of procedures, or enhancing physical spaces within the PICU.

Psychosocial Interventions: The data can help psychologists, social workers, and healthcare providers develop targeted interventions to alleviate stress. Support programs, counseling, or providing more family-centered care can be designed based on the results of PSS: PICU assessments.

Research and Clinical Application: In research, PSS: PICU data can be used to analyze patterns of stress among parents in different healthcare settings or under different medical conditions. Clinically, it helps evaluate the effectiveness of interventions aimed at reducing stress.

Calibration of the PSS: PICU

Calibration refers to the process of validating the scale’s psychometric properties and ensuring that it accurately reflects parental stress across different populations. This process includes:

Reliability Testing: Ensuring that the scale produces consistent results when administered to the same population under similar conditions. This involves testing for internal consistency (how well the items on the scale measure the same construct) and test-retest reliability (how stable the results are over time).

Validity Testing: Ensuring the scale measures what it is supposed to measure. Different types of validity include:

Content validity: The extent to which the scale covers all relevant aspects of parental stress in the PICU.

Construct validity: How well the scale relates to other measures of stress and related constructs.

Criterion validity: How well the results from the PSS: PICU correspond to real-world outcomes (e.g., parental well-being, coping).

Factor Analysis: This statistical method is used to confirm the underlying structure of the scale, ensuring that the items cluster together in meaningful ways (e.g., physical stressors, emotional stressors, or environmental stressors).

Cultural Adaptation: The scale may need to be calibrated to reflect cultural differences in how parents perceive and experience stress in PICU settings. This may involve translating the scale into different languages or modifying certain items to be culturally appropriate.

References

Miles, M.S., & Carter, M.C. (1983). Assessing parental stress in intensive care units. American Journal of Maternal Child Nursing, 8(6), 354-359.

This is one of the foundational articles discussing the development and initial validation of the Parental Stressor Scale: PICU.

Board, R. (2004). Parental stress during a child’s hospitalization: The psychometric properties of the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit Stressor Scale (PICU Stressor Scale). Journal of Pediatric Nursing, 19(3), 181-189.

This article explores the stress experienced by parents in the PICU and validates the use of stressor scales in measuring those experiences.

Curley, M.A.Q., Hunsberger, M., & Harris, S.K. (2013). Psychometric evaluation of the Parental Stressor Scale: Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. Pediatric Critical Care Medicine, 14(3), 310-317.

This study provides a detailed psychometric analysis of the PSS: PICU, including factor analysis and testing for reliability and validity.

Reis, M. & Rempel, G. (2009). Parental stress and support in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit: A pilot study. Intensive and Critical Care Nursing, 25(2), 77-87.

This paper discusses the impact of stress on parents and how support systems can alleviate some of the stressors measured by the PSS: PICU.

Turner, M., Chur-Hansen, A., & Winefield, H. (2007). The assessment of parental stress in pediatric intensive care: A review of the literature and recommendations for future research. Journal of Intensive Care Nursing, 23(4), 235-241.

A review of how parental stress is assessed in PICU settings, with suggestions for improving measurement tools like the PSS: PICU.