Date of Completion

2021

Document Type

Honors College Thesis

Department

Professional Nursing

Thesis Type

Honors College

First Advisor

Susan Kasser

Second Advisor

Sarah Narkewicz

Keywords

Parents, Children, Diabetes, Type 1 Diabetes, Grief

Abstract

Currently, Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus (T1DM) is one of the most common chronic illnesses diagnosed in children. The long-term implications for the child are numerous, and a diagnosis involves many medical decisions and technical management procedures that require a caregiver to assume the bulk of the responsibility. By focusing on the personal and lived experiences of parents and guardians of children with T1DM who live in Vermont, this research continues to further understand this overlooked population and can be used help parents to reflect and possibly provide insight into coping strategies and ways to improve their quality of life. It also helps to reinforce and validate previous findings on this topic. This was a qualitative study in which virtual interviews with 12 participants were conducted. The results revealed that caregivers were greatly affected and experienced a variety of intense emotional responses corresponding to the 5 stages of grief framework. This is important for providers to know in order to understand how to best support parents, who are largely responsible for the labor-intensive self-management needed in a pediatric diagnosis of T1DM. Future research could focus on identifying and implementing specific ways in which to adequately support this population.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

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