BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Pediatric residents are at high risk for moral distress, knowing the moral or ethically right thing to do but feeling unable to do it, which is associated with poor patient care and burnout. Researchers have proposed numerous interventions to reduce distress, but few (if any) have been supported by experimental evidence. In this study, we used an experimental method to provide proof-of-concept evidence regarding the effect of various simple supports on pediatric residents' reported degree of moral distress.

METHODS: We conducted a study of pediatric residents using a split sample experimental design. The questionnaire contained 6 clinical vignettes describing scenarios expected to cause moral distress. For each case, participants were randomly assigned to see 1 of 2 versions that varied only regarding whether they included a supportive statement. After reading each of the 6 cases, participants reported their level of associated moral distress.

RESULTS: Two hundred and twenty respondents from 5 residency programs completed the experiment. Cases were perceived to represent common scenarios that cause distress for pediatric residents. The addition of a supportive statement reduced moral distress in 4 of the 6 cases.

CONCLUSIONS: In this proof-of-concept study, simple yet effective interventions provided support by offering the resident empathy and shared perspective or responsibility. Interventions that were purely informational were not effective in reducing moral distress.

<p><strong>CONTEXT: </strong>Family meetings are encouraged in the pediatric cardiac intensive care unit (CICU) with the expectation of supporting parental shared decision-making (SDM). However, they often fall short of this goal. Additionally, interprofessional team and family meetings are dominated by input from physicians, under-utilizing the skillset of the full clinical team.</p>

<p><strong>OBJECTIVES: </strong>1) To determine feasibility of a codesign process to optimize the preparation of the interprofessional team and parents for conducting SDM-oriented family meetings in the CICU, and 2) to describe the resulting elements of the intervention including new support documents for the team and family to prepare for the meeting, team member roles in the meeting, and optimization of communication skills.</p>

<p><strong>METHODS: </strong>Experience-based codesign was used with CICU clinicians and parents of children hospitalized in the CICU to develop an intervention at a single institution. Sessions were audio recorded and transcribed and analyzed using modified grounded theory. Participants were surveyed about their engagement in the codesign process to assess feasibility.</p>

<p><strong>RESULTS: </strong>Fifteen professionals and 6 parents enrolled in the codesign and endorsed engagement in the process and importance of the intervention elements. Participants identified the benefit of complementary parent and team preparation for family meetings noting 5 distinct types of meetings that occurred frequently. Documents, processes, and skills training were developed to improve interprofessional teamwork regarding shared decision making and support of parents in family meetings.</p>

<p><strong>CONCLUSION: </strong>A codesign of an intervention with clinicians and parents in the CICU is a feasible and resulted in an intervention with broad support among clinicians in the CICU.</p>

<p>We describe a model of parental (or more broadly, surrogate) decision-making that includes 5 aspects of decision-making that other models simplify or omit. First, we describe problem structuring recognizing that parents often face multiple potential problems or decisions with multiple potential solutions, rather than a single problem, and the initial challenge is deciding which of the problems to focus on. Second, we discuss sense-making recognizing that difficult decisions are not made in isolation but are often part of a confusing, labyrinthian situation in which disoriented parents must make a series of decisions over time in hopes of getting closer to 1 or more goals. Third, we describe path dependency recognizing that decisions influence what and how decisions are made later. Fourth, we discuss personal sense of duty recognizing that parents and other surrogate decision-makers have central personal roles, self-identities, and relationships with the patient, culminating in a personal sense of duty, such as what they perceive they should do to be in their own judgment a "good parent," which substantially affects their decision-making. Fifth, we describe self-judgments recognizing that parents experience distress when they judge themselves as falling short of their duties or if they think others are judging them for falling short. Clinical practice, medical ethics, and research regarding decision support can all benefit by acknowledging and addressing these key aspects of medical decision-making.</p>

<p><strong>CONTEXT: </strong>Parents may experience psychological distress when a child is acutely hospitalized, which can negatively affect child outcomes. Interventions designed to support parents' coping have the potential to mitigate this distress.</p>

<p><strong>OBJECTIVE: </strong>To describe interventions designed to provide coping support to parents of hospitalized children and conduct a meta-analysis of coping support intervention outcomes (parent anxiety, depression, and stress).</p>

<p><strong>DATA SOURCES: </strong>We searched Pubmed, Embase, PsycINFO, Psychiatry Online, and Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature from 1985 to 2016 for English-language articles including the concepts "pediatric," "hospitalization," "parents," and "coping support intervention."</p>

<p><strong>STUDY SELECTION: </strong>Two authors reviewed titles and abstracts to identify studies meeting inclusion criteria and reviewed full text if a determination was not possible using the title and abstract. References of studies meeting inclusion criteria were reviewed to identify additional articles for inclusion.</p>

<p><strong>DATA EXTRACTION: </strong>Two authors abstracted data and assessed risk of bias by using a structured instrument.</p>

<p><strong>RESULTS: </strong>Initial searches yielded 3450 abstracts for possible inclusion. Thirty-two studies met criteria for inclusion in the systematic review and 12 studies met criteria for inclusion in the meta-analysis. The most commonly measured outcomes were parent depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms. In meta-analysis, combined intervention effects significantly reduced parent anxiety and stress but not depression. Heterogeneity among included studies was high.</p>

<p><strong>LIMITATIONS: </strong>Most included studies were conducted at single centers with small sample sizes.</p>

<p><strong>CONCLUSIONS: </strong>Coping support interventions can alleviate parents' psychological distress during children's hospitalization. More evidence is needed to determine if such interventions benefit children.</p>