Compilation of the neonatal palliative care clinical guideline in neonatal intensive care unit

Clinical guidelines are important instruments for increasing the quality of clinical practice in the treatment team. Compilation of clinical guidelines is important due to special condition of the neonates and the nurses facing critical conditions in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). With 98% of neonatal deaths occurring in NICUs in the hospitals, it is important to pay attention to this issue. This study aimed at compilation of the neonatal palliative care clinical guidelines in NICU.

This study was conducted with multistage comparative strategies with localization in Isfahan in 2013. In the first step, the components of the neonatal palliative care clinical guidelines were determined by searching in different databases. In the second stage, the level of expert group's consensus with each component of neonatal palliative care in the nominal group and focus group was investigated, and the clinical guideline was written based on that. In the third stage, the quality and applicability were determined with the positive viewpoints of medical experts, nurses, and members of the science board of five cities in Iran. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics through SPSS.

In the first stage, the draft of neonatal palliative care was designed based on neonates', their parents', and the related staff's requirements. In the second stage, its rank and applicability were determined and after analyzing the responses, with agreement of the focus group, the clinical guideline was written. In the third stage, the means of indication scores obtained were 75%, 69%, 72%, 72%, and 68% by Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation (AGREE) instrument.

The compilation of the guideline can play an effective role in provision of neonatal care in nursing.