Comparing the effect of nurse-led and peer-led training on stress of mothers of children with chronic diseases

Background: For children and their families, the diagnosis of a chronic disease can come as a mental and psychological shock. Objective: The present study was undertaken to compare the effect of nurse-led and peer-led training methods on the stress of mothers of children with chronic illness. Methods: A two-group, pre-test and post-test design, clinical trial was conducted on sixty mothers of children with chronic diseases. Using a permuted-blocked randomized sampling method, the subjects were equally assigned into two groups of 30 to receive either peer-led or nurse-led training. All of the mothers in the two intervention groups were responded the parenting stress index within 48-72 h after the diagnosis and hospitalization of their child and then again after the end of the training program. The mothers in each intervention group were divided into small subgroups of 2-3 and each subgroup participated in three 30 min training sessions held either by a trained peer or by a nurse. Data analysis was performed using t-test, Chi-square test, Mann-Whitney, and paired t-test. Results: No statistically significant difference was observed between the stress scores of peer-led group (320.29 ± 44.38) and nurse-led group (319.60 ± 41.12) before the intervention. After the implementation of the intervention programs, a greater decrease was observed in the mean stress score of the nurse group (314.48 ± 19.67), as compared to the peer group (320.5 ± 22.92). However, the difference was not statistically significant (P > 0.05). Conclusion: Peer- and nurse-led training methods did not yield much different results. Therefore, it is recommended to substitute peer-led training method for nurse-led training method, due to the nurses' huge workload