Volume 13, Issue 1 (January 2026), Pages: 154-161

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 Original Research Paper

The effect of nurse-led, culturally tailored education on parental anxiety and caregiver burden in the neonatal intensive care unit

 Author(s): 

 Essam Eltantawy Elsayed Eltantawy *

 Affiliation(s):

 Faculty of Nursing, University of Hafr Al-Batin, Hafr Al-Batin, Saudi Arabia

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 * Corresponding Author. 

   Corresponding author's ORCID profile:  https://orcid.org/0009-0008-6657-7896

 Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

  https://doi.org/10.21833/ijaas.2026.01.016

 Abstract

This quasi-experimental, time-block controlled study evaluated the effectiveness of a nurse-led, culturally tailored educational program in reducing parental anxiety and caregiver burden among parents of infants admitted to a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) in Egypt. A total of 100 parents were assigned to either an intervention group that received structured, theory-based educational sessions or a control group that received standard care. Validated Arabic versions of the Beck Anxiety Inventory and the Caregiver Burden Scale were administered at baseline, after two weeks, and after three months. Parents in the intervention group showed significantly greater reductions in anxiety and caregiver burden compared with those in the control group, and these improvements were maintained at three months. Regression analysis identified participation in the educational program as the main predictor of improved psychological outcomes. These findings indicate that a structured, nurse-led educational intervention adapted to the local cultural context and based on psychological theory is associated with reduced parental anxiety and caregiver burden in a resource-limited NICU setting. However, the quasi-experimental design limits causal interpretation. Overall, the results highlight the important role of neonatal nurses in providing culturally appropriate psychosocial education and support, and support the integration of such interventions into routine NICU practice to strengthen family-centered care and parental well-being.

 © 2026 The Authors. Published by IASE.

 This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

 Keywords

 Neonatal intensive care, Parental anxiety, Caregiver burden, Nurse-led education, Culturally tailored intervention

 Article history

 Received 29 August 2025, Received in revised form 27 December 2025, Accepted 5 January 2026

 Acknowledgment

The author expresses profound gratitude to the nursing staff and administration of El-Senbellawein General Hospital for their invaluable cooperation and for facilitating access to the neonatal intensive care unit. Additionally, the author acknowledges the parents who participated in this study. 

 Compliance with ethical standards

 Ethical considerations

Ethical approval was obtained from the Faculty of Nursing at Helwan University (Ref. No. HUNURSERC 2024/07/52/90) and El-Senbellawein General Hospital. The study adhered to the Declaration of Helsinki. Participants gave written informed consent after being fully informed about the study's purpose, procedures, risks, and benefits. Confidentiality was maintained via anonymized coding and secure, encrypted data storage accessible only to authorized staff. Participants could withdraw at any time without impacting their neonates' care.

 Conflict of interest: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

 Citation:

 Eltantawy EEE (2026). The effect of nurse-led, culturally tailored education on parental anxiety and caregiver burden in the neonatal intensive care unit. International Journal of Advanced and Applied Sciences, 13(1): 154-161

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