Comparing the Effect of Nurse‑led and Peer‑led Training on Stress of Mothers of Children with Chronic Diseases

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.