Abstract
Hospital nurses used an investigator designed survey instrument to record demographics and anticipated nursing needs of 29 children discharged from 7 units during a 1 month period. The median age of the children was 18 months and 77% of the sick children had one or more siblings. Parental leave enabled most parents to participate in the child's hospital care. Over three quarters of the families reported no support person available to assist them at home. At time of discharge 42% of the children required long-term nursing interventions related to chronic illness. Nurses trained parents visiting in the hospital for an average of 3 hours and 40 minutes per family before discharge. Nurses also arranged an informal system of follow-up telephone contact but few community referrals. With decreasing length of hospital stay, parents need a formal system of nursing support before and after the discharge of their child from a hospital.