A tool to improve communication in the neonatal unit

Frequent and sensitive communication from neonatal staff is important to alleviate parental stress and to ensure that parents understand their baby's condition and progress. It also consequently empowers and involves parents in their baby's care. A lack of regular and informative communication from neonatal staff is a common reason for parental complaint. We sought to assess whether the implementation of a baby diary used as a communication tool would improve parent-staff communication and optimise the parental experience of neonatal care. In this study, parents and carers of babies on our neonatal unit were invited to complete a questionnaire to assess their level of satisfaction with communication by neonatal staff before and after the implementation of the diaries. The diary was designed to act as an aid to improve communication to parents about their baby and thereby complementing face-to face communication and encouraging parental involvement. The study design was a retrospective parental satisfaction questionnaire based on the Department of Health [1] and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) [2] quality standards for specialist neonatal care on communication and parental involvement (n=44, response rate 57%). Following implementation of the diary, the questionnaire was repeated on two occasions: one month post implementation (n=17, response rate 23%) and 15 months post implementation (n=44, response rate 65%). More parents in the post-intervention cohort felt they were receiving regular communication from staff, that their questions and concerns were being addressed, and felt involved in their baby's care than in the pre-intervention cohort. In addition, 100% of parents said they liked reading the diary and 94% felt it added to their understanding of how their baby was doing. Our project demonstrates an improvement in parents' satisfaction with communication from neonatal staff following the implementation of individual baby diaries. The diary is a simple, practical, and cost-effective tool to enhance communication between parents and staff in a neonatal unit.