1Gangneung Asan Medical Center, Korea. hee-g@hanmail.net 2Department of Nursing, Kwandong University, Korea.
Abstract
PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of a discharge education program on maternal role confidence and parenting stress of mothers who delivered premature infants. The program provided them with information on childrearing and supportive educational nursing care.
METHOD: This study was based on pretest- posttest nonequivalent nonsynchronized quasi-experimental design. The participants in this study were 30 mothers who delivered premature infants at a general hospital in G city. The instruments used in this study were Maternity Confidence Inventory, Parenting Stress Index(PSI).
RESULTS: The first hypothesis that the mothers in the experimental group would undergo changes in maternal role confidence after the intervention was accepted, as there was a statistically significant gap between the two groups(F=9.386, P=.000). The second hypothesis that mothers in the experimental group would undergo change in parenting stress after the intervention was accepted, as there was a statistically significant gap between the two groups(F=4.425, P=.380). CONCLUSION: The findings suggest that the Discharge Education Program was an efficient intervention method to boost the maternal confidence of mothers with premature infants and to decrease their parenting stress.