<p dir="ltr">Excerpt from Introduction:</p><p dir="ltr">Each year, hundreds of thousands of children worldwide are admitted to a paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) because of critical illness or life-threatening injury. These children are admitted from diverse family units, where their wellbeing is closely intertwined with other members of their family, including parents, carers, siblings, extended family, and friends [1]. Within the PICU, we care for these children under the philosophy of family centred care (FCC), where the whole family is viewed as being included in, and impacted by, the experience [2,3]. However, in reality PICU is often an overwhelming and hostile environment for children and their families, and is not always welcoming of wider family inclusion or presence [3,4].</p>
Funding
Jessica Appleyard is supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program (RTP) Scholarship. Jessica would like to acknowledge the role of the Prince Henry’s Affiliates Scholarship administered by the Australian Nurses Memorial Centre in facilitating her postgraduate studies. Dr Ashleigh Butler is an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) recipient for research into ‘Supporting the inclusion of siblings when a family is in crisis’ (DE230101123).
Supporting the inclusion of siblings when a family is in crisis