Values in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit: Insights into Caregiver Priorities.

Area of Science:

• Neonatal intensive care
• Pediatric critical care
• Health services research

Background:

• High-quality care in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) is crucial for infants and families.
• Understanding caregiver values is essential for patient-centered care.
• Previous research has not comprehensively prioritized caregiver values in the NICU setting.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify and rank caregiver values for high-quality neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) care.
• To explore how caregiver and clinical factors influence these values.

Main Methods:

• Adapted 16 domains of high-value care for the NICU setting.
• Utilized a discrete choice experiment with 45 caregivers of 39 infants.
• Caregivers rated the most and least valued aspects of NICU care.

Main Results:

• Caregiver priority: "Care team members have the necessary education and training to provide high quality care for infants and families."
• Highly ranked values included communication and symptom management.
• Lower-ranked values involved cultural, spiritual, and religious aspects of care.
• Rankings varied by infant length of stay, clinical status, and caregiver relationship.

Conclusions:

• Caregiver priorities in the NICU center on care team expertise, communication, and symptom management.
• Identifying these priorities enhances understanding of family experiences.
• This knowledge supports value-concordant communication and shared decision-making.