日本小児循環器学会雑誌 Pediatric Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery

Objective: To extract and clarify the experiences of parents during the initial transition from hospital to home care for children with congenital heart disease as reported in the literature.

Methods: We used meta-ethnography to synthesize and integrate the findings from qualitative studies.

Results: Altogether, 237 and 236 articles were extracted from PubMed and Ichushi-Web, respectively. Ultimately, 15 domestic and foreign literature articles were subjected to analysis. The integration results revealed the following nine key aspects: “There was a burden of having to take care of my child with congenital heart disease”, “I felt that the support system after discharge was insufficient”, “I felt supported by medical staff during my child’s discharge from the hospital”, “There was a lack of preparation for discharge”, “I lost sight of my role as a parent”, “I felt isolated after discharge”, “I thought about the meaning of my life and that of my child”, “I gained experience while spending the transition period with my child”, and “I was able to live well after discharge”.

Conclusion: Encouraging parents to envision their child’s growth, development, and life as a patient, as well as providing sufficient discharge support, will be the major challenges in pediatric cardiovascular medicine in the future.