Supporting parental bonding in the NICU: a care plan for nurses

New and improved technology in the NICU has assisted in supporting critically ill neonates, especially those born at very low birth weights. These small patients require the dedicated hand of the NICU staff, but also the love and support of their parents. Family bonding in the NICU is often a very difficult process, which is interrupted by separation of parent and child at birth and continued by the physical constraints of this highly complex critical care environment. Neonatal nurses are most often the front line managers and coordinators of family care in the NICU. They are charged with the challenge of understanding and providing "state of the art" technological care in an environment that must also adapt to the ever changing needs of parents and families who cannot be considered visitors, but an integral part of their infants' care and survival. Each infant and family in the NICU requires individualized assessment and nursing care. This article reviews the process of parental bonding as it relates to the premature or ill infant and provides for nurses a plan of care written to foster and support family bonding in the NICU. Stages of bonding with a sick or premature infant are explored in the context of a theoretical framework of adaptation provided by Sister Callista Roy.