During school reintegration: a qualitative study of parental psychological experiences following paediatric kidney transplantation.

OBJECTIVE

To understand the psychological experience of parents of children who have undergone kidney transplantation during school reintegration and to provide a basis for developing targeted interventions.

METHOD

Using purposive sampling, parents of 11 children admitted to the paediatric department of a tertiary-level hospital in Jiangsu Province following kidney transplantation from June 2022 to June 2024 were selected as study participants. One-to-one, semistructured in-depth interviews were conducted, and Colaizzi's seven-step analysis was applied to analyse the interview data.

RESULTS

Four themes emerged: the dilemma between parental expectations and school acceptance, complexity and ambivalence before returning to school, optimism and gratitude after returning to school and expectation of social support.

CONCLUSION

Parents of kidney-transplanted children face various dilemmas regarding school reintegration. Clinical caregivers should pay attention to their psychological experience of parents, develop personalised intervention systems and enhance the caregivers' coping ability in order to improve the children's quality of life.