Intervention could play a critical role in improving the physical and emotional well-being of parents with technology-dependent children, according to the preliminary analysis of a recent study by a Case Western researcher.
Dr. Valerie Boebel Toly, an associate professor at the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing, conducted a study funded by the National Institutes of Nursing Research to examine whether resourcefulness training intervention had a positive effect on the sleep patterns of parents with children who are dependent on lifesaving medical technology, such as ventilators or feeding tubes.
“A lot of the times, (these parents) pour themselves out for these children, but they neglect their own types of health promotion activities and put themselves at risk because of it,” Toly said.
Technology-dependent children require specialized care to meet their complex medical needs. There are more than 600,000 of these children in the U.S., according to the National Library of Medicine.