Parental experiences of family‐centred care from admission to discharge in the neonatal intensive care unit

Abstract

The challenges relating to FCC reported by parents at both admission and discharge represent some of the key barriers that parents still face in terms of being truly involved in the care of their infant in the NICU. Similar themes at both time points suggest that parents need equal amounts of support during their stay in NICU, irrespective of the level of care the infant is receiving and whether they are approaching discharge. Implications for improving FCC more generally are discussed.

Close Collaboration with Parents intervention improves family-centered care in different neonatal unit contexts: a pre–post study

“…The intervention created mutual partnership between the staff and parents, which has been difficult to establish in many units. 8,10 The first step in this process was to remove limitations concerning parental presence so that the parents could participate in all aspects of care. Shared caregiving practiced during the intervention helped the staff to support and trust the parents' ability to take care of their infant.…”

“…The staff learned to give more space for parents to express themselves, which was indicated by an increased total score of the category "Empowered decision making". Previous studies have reported mothers' feelings of being a visitor 10 and not being a part of the team 19 when they are not provided the opportunity to participate in medical rounds or when doctors did not really listen to them during rounds. In addition, inconsistency in involving parents in decision making has been reported as a challenge for providing FCC.…”

“…4 Despite these benefits, there are wide differences in parents' presence, participation in care, and in the quality of familycentered care (FCC) across the world. [8][9][10] Many NICUs still fail to recognize parents as partners 8,11 and may have visitation policies that restrict parent's access to their infants. Parents report that they are not sufficiently included in their infants' care 1,10 and the staff does not negotiate with them about their parental role and participation in care but rather assumes control over care of the infant.…”

“…[8][9][10] Many NICUs still fail to recognize parents as partners 8,11 and may have visitation policies that restrict parent's access to their infants. Parents report that they are not sufficiently included in their infants' care 1,10 and the staff does not negotiate with them about their parental role and participation in care but rather assumes control over care of the infant. 2,10 The Close Collaboration with Parents is an educational intervention for neonatal staff that was developed to support parenting and parent-infant attachment 12,13 by increasing collaboration between parents and staff and by improving the quality of FCC.…”

“…Parents report that they are not sufficiently included in their infants' care 1,10 and the staff does not negotiate with them about their parental role and participation in care but rather assumes control over care of the infant. 2,10 The Close Collaboration with Parents is an educational intervention for neonatal staff that was developed to support parenting and parent-infant attachment 12,13 by increasing collaboration between parents and staff and by improving the quality of FCC. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of the training program on the quality of FCC in eight Finnish NICUs from both the staff and parent perspectives.…”