Objective Constructing a transitional care program for critically ill children in the ICU and exploring the effects of its application on the relocation stress and caregiving abilities of parents of children to improve their caregiving experience.Methods Convenience sampling method was used to select 150 children and their families transferred from PICU to the general ward of a tertiary pediatric hospital in Shanghai from January to September 2023 as research subjects.Subjects enrolled from June to September 2023 were selected as an experimental group,and were applied with the ICU transitional care program for critically ill children.Those enrolled from January to April 2023 were selected as a control group,and received routine ICU transitional care.Family Relocation Stress Scale and Family Caregiver Task Inventory were used to evaluate children's families at 24h before,24h after,and 72h after children's transition from ICU.The incidence of unplanned readmission to ICU within 48h and adverse events were compared between 2 groups of children.Results Eventually 74 pairs in the experimental group and 75 pairs in the control group completed the study.The Family Caregiver Task Inventory scores in the experimental group were lower than that in the control group(P=0.046).Generalized estimation equation showed that,there were significant differences on the intervention effect,the time effect,and the interaction effect of the Family Relocation Stress Scale scores in 2 groups(P＜0.05).Conclusion The ICU transitional care program for critically ill children constructed in this study can effectively improve the level of migration stress and caregiving ability of parents of critically ill children,and optimize the quality of transitional care for critically ill children.

Objective Constructing a transitional care program for critically ill children in the ICU and exploring the effects of its application on the relocation stress and caregiving abilities of parents of children to improve their caregiving experience.Methods Convenience sampling method was used to select 150 children and their families transferred from PICU to the general ward of a tertiary pediatric hospital in Shanghai from January to September 2023 as research subjects.Subjects enrolled from June to September 2023 were selected as an experimental group,and were applied with the ICU transitional care program for critically ill children.Those enrolled from January to April 2023 were selected as a control group,and received routine ICU transitional care.Family Relocation Stress Scale and Family Caregiver Task Inventory were used to evaluate children's families at 24h before,24h after,and 72h after children's transition from ICU.The incidence of unplanned readmission to ICU within 48h and adverse events were compared between 2 groups of children.Results Eventually 74 pairs in the experimental group and 75 pairs in the control group completed the study.The Family Caregiver Task Inventory scores in the experimental group were lower than that in the control group(P=0.046).Generalized estimation equation showed that,there were significant differences on the intervention effect,the time effect,and the interaction effect of the Family Relocation Stress Scale scores in 2 groups(P＜0.05).Conclusion The ICU transitional care program for critically ill children constructed in this study can effectively improve the level of migration stress and caregiving ability of parents of critically ill children,and optimize the quality of transitional care for critically ill children.