Designing a Supportive Program based on the Real Needs of Mothers with Children Undergoing Hemodialysis: A Qualitative Study

Background: Mothers with children undergoing hemodialysis play the role of primary caregivers for their child and fully sacrifice themselves for care, leading to social isolation, suffering, stress, and negative effects on their health. Therefore, this study was conducted to design a supportive program based on the real needs of mothers with children undergoing hemodialysis.

Materials and methods: This qualitative study was conducted in the Hemodialysis Division of Doctor Sheikh Pediatric Hospital in Mashhad City, Iran, from September 2016 to February 2019. The research included phenomenological study, meta-synthesis of qualitative studies, focused group, and nominal group. Participants were selected based on purposive sampling. Eleven mothers with children undergoing hemodialysis and seven key people related to these mothers participated in the study. MaxQDA software was used to facilitate data management.

Results: The six main areas including information needs, how to deal with the child, maintaining the mother's physical and functional health, maintaining family relationships, income earning and maintaining financial resources, and emotional-psychological support were extracted. Based on the needs of mothers, 28 support strategies were presented; then, 19 ideas were presented to screen the needs, and finally, the best idea was selected for each need.

Conclusions: According to the findings of this study, mothers with children undergoing hemodialysis need support in various physical, psychosocial, informational, economic, and functional dimensions. The supportive program designed provides a systematic framework for screening the needs of these mothers and providing multifaceted support measures with the participation of a multidisciplinary care team.