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Parental presence when their child is in neonatal intensive care
Helena Wigert1, Marie Berg, Anna-Lena Hellström
1Institute of Health and Care Sciences, The Sahlgrenska Academy at University of Gothenburg, Göteborg, Sweden. helena.wigert@gu.se
Insights
Parental presence in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) is higher when parents stay on-site. Creating a family-friendly NICU environment and considering parental needs are crucial for optimizing family time with their hospitalized infant.
Area of Science:
- Neonatal care
- Parental well-being
- Family-centered care
Background:
- Parents are encouraged to stay with their infants in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).
- Understanding parental presence is key to improving family-integrated care in NICUs.
Purpose of the Study:
- To quantify daily parental presence with infants in the NICU.
- To identify factors influencing parental presence in the NICU.
Main Methods:
- A descriptive study involving 67 parents of 42 infants across two NICUs.
- Data collected through time registration and structured interviews.
Main Results:
- Parental presence varied significantly based on accommodation type, with on-unit parent rooms showing higher presence.
- Motivators for presence included parental responsibility, infant condition, and desire for control.
- Facilitating factors included positive staff interactions, family-friendly environments, and high-quality care; barriers included parental illness and home responsibilities.
Conclusions:
- There is a need to enhance NICU environments to support optimal parental presence.
- NICU policies should consider parental motivations and barriers to presence.
Background And Aim:
When a newborn baby needs care in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), the parents are welcome to stay with their child whenever they wish. The aim of the present study was to investigate the time per day parents are present together with their child at the NICU and to identify factors that facilitated and obstructed their presence.
Methods:
In a descriptive study 67 parents of 42 children from two NICUs registered all time they spent at the NICU and then took part in a structured interview.
Findings:
Parental presence at NICUs varied depending on types of accommodation offered. Those who stayed in parent rooms at the units showed a significantly higher presence with their children than parents who stayed at family hotel, at home or on a maternity ward. Factors that motivated parental presence were primarily the willingness to take parental responsibility, the child's condition requiring it, and the want to have control. Good treatment by the staff, a family-friendly environment and high quality care were main facilitating factors for parents to be present at the NICU. Obstructing factors were primarily ill health by parents, a non-family-friendly environment, care of the home and of children at home.
Conclusions:
The result shows that there is a need to develop a family-friendly environment that provides optimal conditions for parents to be with their child in a NICU and to consider the parent's own reason for being or not being present.
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