Focusing on Family Helps Mothers of Technology-Dependent Children Function

Valerie Toly finds how integration of technology impacts family cohesion

Posted 1/05/12

Valerie Toly, PhD(c), RN, CPNP

Assistant Professor Valerie Toly, PhD, RN, CPNP has conducted research on mothers of technology-dependent children, finding that successful integration of these children into life's day-to-day functions and events improves the overall cohesion of the family.

"It's about the perception of the child's illness," she says. She is the lead researcher on the study, "A Longitudinal Study of Families with Technology-Dependent Children," in the journal of Research in Nursing & Health.

Toly's research is one of the first longitudinal studies to see how families function and reach normalcy once children leave the hospital equipped with technology to keep them alive. She studied 82 mothers, recruited during visits to a hospital's specialty clinic.

Although she found that mothers whose children no longer used technologies had the greatest improvement in family functioning and normalcy, the situation is vastly different for those children who continue to require technology. In their case, integrating them into family events is critical.

Read more about this research here.

Source: Case Western Reserve University

RELATED

• Read the full story on MedicalXpress.com and Nurse.com

• FPB's Center for Research and Scholarship