ChildrenNCT07807267
Effects of the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit Diary on Parents
A study testing Pediatric Intensive Care Unit Diary (PICU Diary) in people with Children and PICU, run by Cukurova University at 1 site in Turkey (Türkiye).
Trial summary
Pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) admission is a highly stressful and potentially traumatic experience for parents, who may experience anxiety, uncertainty, helplessness, and post-traumatic stress symptoms that can persist after discharge. Read more about this study
- Who is it for?
- Ages 18 years and older
- What is being tested?
- Pediatric Intensive Care Unit Diary (PICU Diary)
- Type of treatment
- Lifestyle or therapy programme
- Could I receive a placebo?
- No, everyone receives an active treatment
- How many people
- 100 participants
- Where
- 1 siteTurkey (Türkiye)
- Study dates
- 1 Oct 2026to Jun 2027
- Phase
- Interventional
- Are there results?
- Not yet: the study is under way
Key requirements
Who can take part, as listed by the sponsor. Only the study team can confirm whether you are eligible, so take this list to your doctor.
- Ages 18 years and older
- All sexes
- No healthy volunteers
- Adult, Older adult
Who may be able to join
- Having a child aged 0-18 years
- The child is expected to stay in intensive care for ≥72 hours
- One or both parents must be able to read and write Turkish
- Voluntary participation
Who cannot join
- Child's death within the first 24 hours
- Parent's history of serious psychiatric diagnosis
- Previous PICU experience with the same child
Trial locations and contacts
1 site in 1 country. Contact the study team or a site near you to ask about taking part.
Turkey (Türkiye)1 site
Cukurova University
Sarıçam, Adana
Aslıhan Hacısalihoğlu, 05342612377, asli.han.hem@gmail.com
About this study
Official title: The Effect of a Pediatric Intensive Care Unit Diary on Traumatic Stress, Anxiety, and Satisfaction With Care in Parents: A Randomized Controlled Trial
Pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) admission is a highly stressful and potentially traumatic experience for parents, who may experience anxiety, uncertainty, helplessness, and post-traumatic stress symptoms that can persist after discharge. PICU diaries have emerged as a family-centered intervention to help parents understand and reconstruct the intensive care experience, reduce memory gaps, facilitate emotional expression, and strengthen communication with healthcare professionals. Previous studies suggest that PICU diaries are feasible, acceptable, and potentially effective in reducing psychological distress and improving family experiences. However, randomized controlled studies evaluating their effects on parental traumatic stress, anxiety, and satisfaction with care remain limited. Moreover, no experimental study evaluating a structured PICU diary intervention in Türkiye has been identified. Therefore, evaluating the effects of PICU diaries on parental psychological outcomes and satisfaction with care is warranted.
Read the detailed description
Pediatric intensive care units (PICUs) provide advanced monitoring and treatment for children with life-threatening acute or chronic health conditions. A child's admission to the PICU can be a highly stressful and potentially traumatic experience not only for the child but also for parents and the entire family. During this period, parents may experience intense anxiety, uncertainty, fear, helplessness, and loss of control, and these psychological effects may persist even after discharge. These long-term consequences are increasingly recognized within the concept of Post-Intensive Care Syndrome-Family (PICS-F), which encompasses anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress symptoms, and impaired social functioning among family members following an intensive care experience.
Family-centered care is a fundamental component of high-quality pediatric intensive care and emphasizes parental participation, collaboration with healthcare professionals, effective communication, and meeting families' informational and psychosocial needs. Within this framework, PICU diaries have emerged as an innovative intervention to support children and their families throughout the intensive care experience. PICU diaries are structured records in which healthcare professionals and family members document significant events, treatments, clinical developments, and personal or family messages during the child's PICU stay. These diaries are intended to facilitate understanding and reconstruction of the intensive care experience, reduce memory gaps, promote emotional expression, and help families make sense of potentially traumatic events.
Previous studies have demonstrated that PICU diaries are feasible and acceptable to families and may strengthen communication between parents and healthcare professionals, reduce uncertainty, facilitate parental involvement in care, and help parents process their child's intensive care journey. Recent evidence also suggests that diary interventions may contribute to reductions in parental anxiety and post-traumatic stress symptoms. However, randomized controlled studies evaluating the effects of PICU diaries on parental psychological outcomes remain limited. In particular, evidence regarding their effects on traumatic stress, anxiety, and satisfaction with care is insufficient. Furthermore, no experimental study evaluating the effectiveness of a structured PICU diary intervention in Türkiye has been identified.
This randomized controlled experimental study was designed to examine the effects of a structured intensive care diary implemented in the pediatric intensive care unit on parents' levels of traumatic stress, anxiety, and satisfaction with care.
- Being tested
- Pediatric Intensive Care Unit Diary (PICU Diary)
- Keywords
- Pediatric Intensive Care Units, Parents, Post-Traumatic Anxiety, Diaries
What participants receive
What participants receive. In a randomised study each person is assigned to one group by chance.
Pediatric Intensive Care Unit Diary (PICU Diary)Behavioural
The PICU diary will include nursing entries, parental messages, positive clinical developments, and photographs. Nurses will document the child's clinical condition, treatments, significant events, and progress using clear and family-friendly language. Parents will be encouraged to write messages expressing their feelings, thoughts, and support for their child. Positive clinical milestones, such as reduced ventilatory support, initiation or advancement of feeding, and mobilization, will also be recorded. With written parental consent, photographs may be added once or twice a week depending on the child's clinical condition. Before implementation, the PICU team will receive standardized training on the purpose of the diary, documentation criteria, and their roles in diary writing. All caregivers will be invited to contribute to the diary, and the intervention will be implemented consistently across all participants.
| Study group | Role | What they receive |
|---|---|---|
| No Intervention: GROUP WITH STANDARD CARE AND TREATMENT | No intervention | Participants in the control group will continue to receive routine care and information provided in the pediatric intensive care unit. Parents in this group will not receive the intensive care diary intervention. |
| Experimental Group: Structured Pediatric Intensive Care Unit Diary (PICU Diary) Intervention | Experimental | Participants in the experimental group will receive the structured Pediatric Intensive Care Unit Diary (PICU Diary) intervention in addition to routine intensive care. The diary intervention will be initiated within the first 48 hours following the child's admission to the PICU and will continue throughout the PICU stay.
A standardized intensive care diary developed by the researcher will be created for each child. The diary will be used to chronologically document events related to the child's intensive care experience by parents, nurses, physicians, and other healthcare professionals, with the aim of reducing parents' uncertainty, anxiety, and traumatic stress symptoms.
The diary will include nursing entries, parental messages, positive developments regarding the child's clinical progress, and photographs added with the family's consent. Receives: Behavioral: Pediatric Intensive Care Unit Diary (PICU Diary) |
What is being measured
The primary outcome is the main question the study is designed to answer.
Impact of Event Scale-Revised, IES-R
The Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R) will be used to assess post-traumatic stress symptoms related to the pediatric intensive care experience among parents. Developed by Weiss and Marmar (1996), the IES-R consists of 22 items across three subscales: intrusion, avoidance, and hyperarousal. Each item is rated from 0 (not at all) to 4 (extremely), with higher scores indicating greater post-traumatic stress symptoms. In the original study, Cronbach's alpha coefficients ranged from 0.87 to 0.92 for intrusion, 0.84 to 0.86 for avoidance, and 0.79 to 0.90 for hyperarousal. The Turkish validity and reliability study was conducted by Çorapçıoğlu et al. (2006), reporting a Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.94 for the total scale and demonstrating high validity and reliability in assessing post-traumatic stress symptoms.
Measured: 15 days after discharge
State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, STAI
The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), developed by Spielberger, Gorsuch, and Lushene (1970), will be used to assess parents' state and trait anxiety levels. The STAI consists of two 20-item subscales, the State Anxiety and Trait Anxiety subscales, with higher scores indicating higher levels of anxiety. The Turkish validity and reliability study was conducted by Öner and Le Compte (1985). The internal consistency coefficients ranged from 0.83 to 0.87 for the State Anxiety subscale and from 0.94 to 0.96 for the Trait Anxiety subscale, demonstrating that the Turkish version is a valid and reliable instrument.
Measured: initially at discharge 15 days after discharge
EMPATHIC-30
The EMpowerment of PArents in THe Intensive Care-30 (EMPATHIC-30) scale will be used to assess parents' satisfaction with care provided in the pediatric intensive care unit. Developed by Latour et al. (2011), the EMPATHIC-30 is a 30-item instrument comprising five domains: Information, Care and Treatment, Organization, Parent Participation, and Professional Attitude. Items are rated on a six-point Likert scale, with higher scores indicating greater parental satisfaction with care. In the original study, Cronbach's alpha coefficients for the subscales ranged from 0.73 to 0.93, demonstrating good internal consistency. The Turkish validity and reliability study was conducted by Tiryaki et al. (2020), with a Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.95 for the total scale and coefficients ranging from 0.80 to 0.92 for the subscales. The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) for test-retest reliability was 0.998, indicating that the Turkish version is a highly valid and reliable instrument.
Measured: at discharge 15 days after discharge
Timeline
From the start of the study to its completion; the mark is today. Estimated dates are the sponsor’s plan.
- First posted8 Sep 2026
- Study start1 Oct 2026 (estimated)
- Primary completion1 Jun 2027 (estimated)
- Study completionJun 2027 (estimated)
Resources
- Official record on ClinicalTrials.govThe registry entry this page is built from, with its full change history.
- Other trials for ChildrenStudies of the same condition, open and under way.
- More trials run by Cukurova UniversityThe sponsor's other registered studies.
- What the trial phases meanHow a treatment moves from first tests in people to approval.
More details
For doctors and researchers: how the study is designed, who runs it, and its registry IDs.
Study design
- Study type
- Interventional
- Phase
- Phase N/A
- Primary purpose
- Supportive care
- Allocation
- Randomised
- Intervention model
- Parallel groups
- Masking
- None (open label)
- Enrolment
- 100 participants (estimated)
Sponsor and investigators
- Lead sponsor
- Cukurova University
- Sponsor type
- University, hospital or other
- Responsible party
- Principal investigator, Emel Yürük, Cukurova University
IDs, dates and publications
- ClinicalTrials.gov ID
- NCT07807267
- Sponsor's protocol ID
- 10/07/2026 168
- Status last verified
- Sep 2026
- First submitted
- 2 Sep 2026
- Last updated
- 8 Sep 2026
- Results posted
- No
- Data monitoring committee
- No
- FDA-regulated drug
- No
- FDA-regulated device
- No
- Individual data sharing
- No
Study at a glance
From the registry record, last updated by the sponsor on 8 Sep 2026. Recruitment status is as the sponsor reported it: confirm with the study team.
- Official title
- The Effect of a Pediatric Intensive Care Unit Diary on Traumatic Stress, Anxiety, and Satisfaction With Care in Parents: A Randomized Controlled Trial
- ClinicalTrials.gov ID
- NCT07807267
- Acronym / sponsor ID
- 10/07/2026 168
- Keywords
- Pediatric Intensive Care Units, Parents, Post-Traumatic Anxiety, Diaries
- Study type
- Interventional
- Recruitment status
- Not yet recruiting
- Enrolment
- 100 participants (estimated)
- Lead sponsor
- Cukurova UniversityUniversity, hospital or other
- Study start
- 1 Oct 2026 (estimated)
- Primary completion
- 1 Jun 2027 (estimated)
- Study completion
- Jun 2027 (estimated)
- First posted
- 8 Sep 2026 (actual)
- Results
- Not posted in the source record
Clinical summary
The research question as the sponsor registered it. This describes what the study plans to test, not what it found.
Pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) admission is a highly stressful and potentially traumatic experience for parents, who may experience anxiety, uncertainty, helplessness, and post-traumatic stress symptoms that can persist after discharge. PICU diaries have emerged as a family-centered intervention to help parents understand and reconstruct the intensive care experience, reduce memory gaps, facilitate emotional expression, and strengthen communication with healthcare professionals. Previous studies suggest that PICU diaries are feasible, acceptable, and potentially effective in reducing psychological distress and improving family experiences. However, randomized controlled studies evaluating their effects on parental traumatic stress, anxiety, and satisfaction with care remain limited. Moreover, no experimental study evaluating a structured PICU diary intervention in Türkiye has been identified. Therefore, evaluating the effects of PICU diaries on parental psychological outcomes and satisfaction with care is warranted.
Detailed description
Pediatric intensive care units (PICUs) provide advanced monitoring and treatment for children with life-threatening acute or chronic health conditions. A child's admission to the PICU can be a highly stressful and potentially traumatic experience not only for the child but also for parents and the entire family. During this period, parents may experience intense anxiety, uncertainty, fear, helplessness, and loss of control, and these psychological effects may persist even after discharge. These long-term consequences are increasingly recognized within the concept of Post-Intensive Care Syndrome-Family (PICS-F), which encompasses anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress symptoms, and impaired social functioning among family members following an intensive care experience.
Family-centered care is a fundamental component of high-quality pediatric intensive care and emphasizes parental participation, collaboration with healthcare professionals, effective communication, and meeting families' informational and psychosocial needs. Within this framework, PICU diaries have emerged as an innovative intervention to support children and their families throughout the intensive care experience. PICU diaries are structured records in which healthcare professionals and family members document significant events, treatments, clinical developments, and personal or family messages during the child's PICU stay. These diaries are intended to facilitate understanding and reconstruction of the intensive care experience, reduce memory gaps, promote emotional expression, and help families make sense of potentially traumatic events.
Previous studies have demonstrated that PICU diaries are feasible and acceptable to families and may strengthen communication between parents and healthcare professionals, reduce uncertainty, facilitate parental involvement in care, and help parents process their child's intensive care journey. Recent evidence also suggests that diary interventions may contribute to reductions in parental anxiety and post-traumatic stress symptoms. However, randomized controlled studies evaluating the effects of PICU diaries on parental psychological outcomes remain limited. In particular, evidence regarding their effects on traumatic stress, anxiety, and satisfaction with care is insufficient. Furthermore, no experimental study evaluating the effectiveness of a structured PICU diary intervention in Türkiye has been identified.
This randomized controlled experimental study was designed to examine the effects of a structured intensive care diary implemented in the pediatric intensive care unit on parents' levels of traumatic stress, anxiety, and satisfaction with care.
Study design
- Primary purpose
- Supportive care
- Allocation
- Randomised
- Intervention model
- Parallel groups
- Masking
- None (open label)
- Number of arms
- 2
| Arm | Type | Receives |
|---|---|---|
| No Intervention: GROUP WITH STANDARD CARE AND TREATMENT | No intervention | –Participants in the control group will continue to receive routine care and information provided in the pediatric intensive care unit. Parents in this group will not receive the intensive care diary intervention. |
| Experimental Group: Structured Pediatric Intensive Care Unit Diary (PICU Diary) Intervention | Experimental | Behavioral: Pediatric Intensive Care Unit Diary (PICU Diary)Participants in the experimental group will receive the structured Pediatric Intensive Care Unit Diary (PICU Diary) intervention in addition to routine intensive care. The diary intervention will be initiated within the first 48 hours following the child's admission to the PICU and will continue throughout the PICU stay. A standardized intensive care diary developed by the researcher will be created for each child. The diary will be used to chronologically document events related to the child's intensive care experience by parents, nurses, physicians, and other healthcare professionals, with the aim of reducing parents' uncertainty, anxiety, and traumatic stress symptoms. The diary will include nursing entries, parental messages, positive developments regarding the child's clinical progress, and photographs added with the family's consent. |
Who may qualify
- Ages
- 18 years and older
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Not accepted
- Age groups
- Adult, Older adult
Key inclusion criteria (4 listed)
- Having a child aged 0-18 years
- The child is expected to stay in intensive care for ≥72 hours
- One or both parents must be able to read and write Turkish
- Voluntary participation
Key exclusion criteria (3 listed)
- Child's death within the first 24 hours
- Parent's history of serious psychiatric diagnosis
- Previous PICU experience with the same child
Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening; this overview does not establish that a patient qualifies. Full inclusion and exclusion criteria.
Interventions
| Intervention | Type | Arms |
|---|---|---|
| Pediatric Intensive Care Unit Diary (PICU Diary)The PICU diary will include nursing entries, parental messages, positive clinical developments, and photographs. Nurses will document the child's clinical condition, treatments, significant events, and progress using clear and family-friendly language. Parents will be encouraged to write messages expressing their feelings, thoughts, and support for their child. Positive clinical milestones, such as reduced ventilatory support, initiation or advancement of feeding, and mobilization, will also be recorded. With written parental consent, photographs may be added once or twice a week depending on the child's clinical condition. Before implementation, the PICU team will receive standardized training on the purpose of the diary, documentation criteria, and their roles in diary writing. All caregivers will be invited to contribute to the diary, and the intervention will be implemented consistently across all participants. | Behavioural | Experimental Group: Structured Pediatric Intensive Care Unit Diary (PICU Diary) Intervention |
Primary outcome
Impact of Event Scale-Revised, IES-R
Time frame: 15 days after discharge
The Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R) will be used to assess post-traumatic stress symptoms related to the pediatric intensive care experience among parents. Developed by Weiss and Marmar (1996), the IES-R consists of 22 items across three subscales: intrusion, avoidance, and hyperarousal. Each item is rated from 0 (not at all) to 4 (extremely), with higher scores indicating greater post-traumatic stress symptoms. In the original study, Cronbach's alpha coefficients ranged from 0.87 to 0.92 for intrusion, 0.84 to 0.86 for avoidance, and 0.79 to 0.90 for hyperarousal. The Turkish validity and reliability study was conducted by Çorapçıoğlu et al. (2006), reporting a Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.94 for the total scale and demonstrating high validity and reliability in assessing post-traumatic stress symptoms.
State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, STAI
Time frame: initially at discharge 15 days after discharge
The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), developed by Spielberger, Gorsuch, and Lushene (1970), will be used to assess parents' state and trait anxiety levels. The STAI consists of two 20-item subscales, the State Anxiety and Trait Anxiety subscales, with higher scores indicating higher levels of anxiety. The Turkish validity and reliability study was conducted by Öner and Le Compte (1985). The internal consistency coefficients ranged from 0.83 to 0.87 for the State Anxiety subscale and from 0.94 to 0.96 for the Trait Anxiety subscale, demonstrating that the Turkish version is a valid and reliable instrument.
EMPATHIC-30
Time frame: at discharge 15 days after discharge
The EMpowerment of PArents in THe Intensive Care-30 (EMPATHIC-30) scale will be used to assess parents' satisfaction with care provided in the pediatric intensive care unit. Developed by Latour et al. (2011), the EMPATHIC-30 is a 30-item instrument comprising five domains: Information, Care and Treatment, Organization, Parent Participation, and Professional Attitude. Items are rated on a six-point Likert scale, with higher scores indicating greater parental satisfaction with care. In the original study, Cronbach's alpha coefficients for the subscales ranged from 0.73 to 0.93, demonstrating good internal consistency. The Turkish validity and reliability study was conducted by Tiryaki et al. (2020), with a Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.95 for the total scale and coefficients ranging from 0.80 to 0.92 for the subscales. The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) for test-retest reliability was 0.998, indicating that the Turkish version is a highly valid and reliable instrument.
Results and safety
This study is still under way. Results are not available in the source record yet.
Research links
- Official record on ClinicalTrials.govLast updated by the sponsor 8 Sep 2026.
- Individual participant dataSharing planned: No
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Referral and contact
AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals. Contact the study team or a site listed below; they decide who can take part.
1 site in 1 country: see every site and its status.
Questions about this trial
What is this clinical trial studying?
A study testing Pediatric Intensive Care Unit Diary (PICU Diary) in people with Children and PICU, run by Cukurova University at 1 site in Turkey (Türkiye).
The full registered description is in the About this study section and the official record.
Who may be eligible to take part?
The sponsor lists 4 inclusion and 3 exclusion criteria. Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening, so read the full criteria and contact a listed site.
Is this clinical trial currently recruiting?
The record says: opening soon, as of the sponsor's last update on 8 Sep 2026. Status can change between updates, so confirm with the study contact before making plans.
Where is the study taking place?
The record lists 1 site in Turkey (Türkiye). Whether a site is taking part right now should be confirmed with that site. See every site.
What are the possible benefits and risks?
They depend on the study and the treatment, and no study can promise a benefit. The study team explains the known risks during informed consent, before anyone joins; the record itself does not list them.
Are results available for this study?
This study is still under way. Results are not available in the source record yet.
How can a doctor refer a patient or contact the research team?
Contact Emel YÜRÜK, PHD (+905387115176, emelyurukbal@gmail.com), or a site near the patient. AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals.
What does the primary outcome measure?
Impact of Event Scale-Revised, IES-R (time frame: 15 days after discharge). The study lists 3 primary outcomes in all. It is what the study was designed to measure, not a finding.
Where can I read the original study information?
Does a listing mean the treatment is approved or proven to work?
No. A listing means the study is registered. It does not show that the treatment is safe, works, or is approved by a regulator.
How often is this information updated?
AzTrials copies changed records from ClinicalTrials.gov every night and reloads the whole registry every week. The sponsor last updated this record on 8 Sep 2026.