Impressions of aquatic therapy treatment in children with prolonged mechanical ventilation - clinician and family perspectives: a qualitative case study.

Children who leave intensive care after prolonged mechanical ventilation often face lasting physical, cognitive, and emotional difficulties, and finding rehabilitation approaches that feel safe and workable for this group is not straightforward. This qualitative case study looked at how aquatic therapy was experienced by the people involved in one such programme, interviewing four parents, five physicians, three physiotherapists, and two nurses. Thematic analysis of their interviews identified three themes: early difficulties getting the therapy accepted and resourced, real anxieties and planning challenges around safety, and a sense that aquatic therapy opened up new possibilities, including parental involvement and a feeling of normalcy for families. These are descriptions of experience and perceived acceptability rather than evidence that aquatic therapy improves outcomes, and the very small, single-programme sample means the findings cannot be generalised beyond the people interviewed.

If your child has needed long-term breathing support in intensive care, you may know how hard it can be to find rehabilitation that feels both safe and meaningful once they come home. This study looked at a water-based therapy programme offered to children in exactly that situation, and researchers interviewed the parents and healthcare team involved to understand what the experience was actually like. People described early struggles getting the therapy accepted, worries about safety at the start, and a need for careful planning around it.

But they also talked about real benefits they noticed, including the comfort of having parents present during sessions and a sense of normal family life returning. Because this study only interviewed 14 people connected to one programme, it tells us about their experiences and impressions rather than proving the therapy changes outcomes, and the findings may not reflect every child or every setting.

This is a summary of research, not medical advice. Talk to your own healthcare provider about anything affecting your care.

For physiotherapists weighing whether aquatic therapy has a place in rehabilitating children with prolonged mechanical ventilation needs after paediatric intensive care discharge, this qualitative case study offers insight into acceptability and implementation rather than effectiveness data. Researchers conducted semi-structured interviews with four parents, five physicians, three physiotherapists, and two nurses involved in one aquatic therapy programme, then performed a thematic analysis. Three themes emerged: barriers to implementation such as scepticism about feasibility and gaps in knowledge and resources, risks and challenges including initial anxiety and the need for structured planning and precautions, and perceived benefits such as enabling parental presence during sessions, fostering a sense of normalcy, and perceived improvements related to post-intensive care syndrome.

These themes describe stakeholder experience and context for implementation, not a tested treatment effect, and no outcome measures or comparison group were used to establish clinical benefit. The main limitation is the very small, single-site sample, which means the findings cannot establish how common these experiences are or whether they would hold in other programmes; the authors frame the results as informing future aquatic therapy programme design, particularly around coordination between professionals, safety protocols, and specialised therapist training, rather than as evidence that the intervention improves outcomes.