Designing for Family Engagement in Neonatal ICUs: How Is the Interior Design of Single-Family Rooms Supporting Family...

Area of Science:

• Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) Design
• Pediatric Healthcare Environments
• Family-Centered Care

Background:

• Family engagement is crucial for infant development in NICUs, transitioning parents from passive observers to active caregivers.
• The built environment, specifically the interior design of single-family rooms (SFRs), influences family engagement but remains under-researched.
• While NICUs have adopted SFR models to include families, the design's potential to support engagement behaviors requires deeper exploration.

Purpose of the Study:

• To understand how the interior design of single-family rooms (SFRs) in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) can support family engagement behaviors.
• To identify specific design elements within SFRs that facilitate or hinder family participation in infant care.
• To explore the relationship between the physical environment of NICU rooms and the actions families take to engage with their infants.

Main Methods:

• Conducted interviews with families and staff, alongside direct observation of family engagement behaviors within SFRs at two NICUs.
• Documented observed behaviors by noting their location, the number of individuals involved, and the specific design elements utilized.
• Assessed built environment characteristics through physical evaluations and gathered participant perceptions on how design factors influence family behaviors in SFRs, using grounded theory and pattern matching for analysis.

Main Results:

• Identified three key behavioral patterns and five distinct themes illustrating the supportive role of SFR interior design.
• Demonstrated how features such as private bathrooms, dedicated family storage, and partitions for family zones enhance home-like, educational, and collaborative infant care behaviors.
• Highlighted the positive impact of 'positive distractions' and 'information boards' in facilitating family engagement and infant care within the NICU setting.

Conclusions:

• The interior design of single-family rooms (SFRs) presents a valuable, yet often overlooked, resource for enhancing family engagement in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).
• Future research should focus on operationalizing and validating the impact of specific SFR design features identified in this study on measurable family engagement outcomes.
• Implementing evidence-based design strategies in NICU SFRs can optimize the environment to better support families during a critical period of infant care.