The Effects of a Discharge Planning Program Applying Orem’s Theory on Mothers’ Ability to Care for Preterm Infants

Abstract

Prolonged admission of premature infants in a neonatal ward may result in their mothers lacking the skills to take care of their babies. Therefore, distribution planning is very important. The purpose of this quasi-experimental research with a two-group posttest design was to study the effects of a discharge planning program on mothers’ ability to care for preterm infants by applying Orem’s theory after one week, one month, two months, and three months post hospital discharge. The participants were the mothers of 52 preterm infants. Participants were purposively selected and divided into an experimental group that received the discharge planning program by applying Orem’s theory and a control group that received routine nursing care with 26 people in each group. The research instruments included the discharge planning program applying Orem’s theory, which was validated by five experts, and the Mothers’ Ability to Care for Preterm Infants Assessment Questionnaire (Content Validity Index of .98 and Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of .92). Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and repeated measures ANOVA. The results revealed that, after attending the program, the mean scores for the ability to care for preterm infants in the experimental group were significantly higher than those of the control group at the statistical level of .05 (F(1, 50) = 5.501, p = .023). The discharge planning program applying Orem’s theory can be used to enhance mothers' abilities to care for preterm infants after hospital discharge.