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Parental involvement in neonatal comfort care
Caryl Skene1, Linda Franck, Penny Curtis
1Jessop Wing Neonatal Unit, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Sheffield, UK. caryl.skene@sth.nhs.uk
Summary
Parental involvement in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) comfort care helps parents learn to parent and facilitates nurse-to-parent responsibility transfer. This engagement also fosters parent-infant bonding and reciprocity.
Area of Science:
- Neonatal care
- Parent-infant interaction
- Family-centered care
Background:
- Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICUs) present unique challenges for new parents.
- Understanding parental roles and interactions is crucial for effective family-centered care.
Purpose of the Study:
- To explore parent-infant and parent-nurse interactions concerning comfort care in the NICU.
- To identify factors influencing the parental learning curve and role transition.
Main Methods:
- Focused ethnography conducted in a UK regional NICU.
- Observations of 11 families (10 mothers, 8 fathers) during caregiving interactions.
- Semistructured interviews with parents over multiple occasions.
Main Results:
- Identified five stages of learning to parent in the NICU.
- Parental involvement in infant comfort care facilitated learning and transfer of responsibility.
- Nurses encouraging parental comfort care improved proximity, reciprocity, and parental responsibility.
Conclusions:
- Parental engagement in comfort care aids the challenging NICU parenting journey.
- This involvement may facilitate nurse-to-parent responsibility transfer and parent-infant attachment.
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