Objective: To identify and describe needs and needs response among mothers of children hospitalized in the Pediatric IntensivebCare Unit.
Material and Methods: Purposive sampling was used to select 50 mothers whose children were admitted to the PediatricbIntensive Care Unit at Songklanagarind Hospital during Arpil-July 2006. Mothers were interviewed using two differentbquestionnaires: 1) the mother and pediatric demographics and 2) Maternal needs and needs response. The questionnaire ofbmaternal needs and needs response was followed and tested for content validity and reliability, yielding a Cronbach’s alphabcoefficient of 0.97.
Results: The mean total scores of needs and needs response were at a high level. There were significant differences (p < .05) forbthree of the dimensions of maternal needs and needs response including; the dimension of information (t=2.60, p=0.01), thebmaternal role needs (t=2.69, p=0.01) and the convenience of visting their children (t=5.38, p=0.00).
Conclusion: To provide effective nursing care, nurses should always carefully consider the needs of individual mothersbespecially for informational needs, maternal role needs and the convenience of visting their children.