Family-centered care in neonatal intensive care unit: a concept analysis

The concept of family- centered care in neonatal intensive care unit has changed drastically in protracted years and has been used in various contexts differently. Since we require clarity in our understanding, we aimed to analyze this concept.

This study was done on the basis of developmental approach of Rodgers's concept analysis. We reviewed the existing literature in Science direct, PubMed, Google Scholar, Scopus, and Iran Medex databases from 1980 to 2012. The keywords were family-centered care, family-oriented care, and neonatal intensive care unit. After all, 59 out of 244 English and Persian articles and books (more than 20%) were selected.

The attributes of family-centered care in neonatal intensive care unit were recognized as care taking of family (assessment of family and its needs, providing family needs), equal family participation (participation in care planning, decision making, and providing care from routine to special ones), collaboration (inter-professional collaboration with family, family involvement in regulating and implementing care plans), regarding family's respect and dignity (importance of families' differences, recognizing families' tendencies), and knowledge transformation (information sharing between healthcare workers and family, complete information sharing according to family learning style). Besides, the recognized antecedents were professional and management-organizational factors. Finally, the consequences included benefits related to neonate, family, and organization.

The findings revealed that family centered-care was a comprehensive and holistic caring approach in neonatal intensive care. Therefore, it is highly recommended to change the current care approach and philosophy and provide facilities for conducting family-centered care in neonatal intensive care unit.