Use Of Hospital Diaries In Pediatrics: A Descriptive Analysis

Critical Care Medicine • Volume 46 • Number 1 (Supplement) www.ccmjournal.org Learning Objectives: Hospital diaries can help patients and their families better understand their illness and daily progress. It can improve recollection of events and has shown to decrease posttraumatic stress symptoms. We began a hospital diary program with the objective of improving patient and family experience by having a place to write thoughts, feelings and understanding of their hospitalization. Methods: IRB approval was obtained. This descriptive analysis evaluated patients admitted to our pediatric hospital from December 2016 to April 2017 who received a hospital diary. All patients with an anticipated length of stay greater than 2 days were eligible for inclusion. After discharge from hospital parents were contacted by phone and a 5 question survey was performed. Statistical analysis was done using Chi-sq and t-test. Results: 73 patients received a hospital diary. Survey response rate was 34% (25 parents), of which 14 (58%) completed a diary. Mean patient age was 4.7 years, males accounted for 56% of patients. 76% were admitted to PICU and 16% were admitted to either general or intermediate care. 69% had a respiratory diagnosis of which 80% required either invasive or noninvasive respiratory support. Mean PICU LOS was 6 days ± 7 and mean hospital LOS 9 ± 8. Mean mechanical ventilation days was 12 ± 7. All parents who completed the diary (100%) thought the diary was helpful. 5 (45%) read the diary back to their child after being discharged from hospital. 12 (85%) looked through the diary after being discharged. All (100%) would recommend the diary to other parents. Of the parents that did not complete the diary the most common reasons included: diary was given too many days into admission, did not perceive that their child was very sick, parent was not interested in keeping journal or family was not available to visit patient daily. There was no significant differences in demographic or clinical conditions between the group that completed the diary compared to the group that did not complete the diary (p> 0.05). Conclusions: In our pediatric hospital parents who completed a hospital diary felt that it was helpful and were likely to recommend it to other families. Majority of them reviewed it after discharge from the hospital.