A philosophy of care for a neonatal intensive care unit. Operationalization of a nursing model

Crisis reactions, a stressful environment, infant care practices, and nurse behavior may cause difficulties in entering the natural parental role for parents of infants who are admitted to a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). In connection with discussions in the Uppsala NICU on what constitutes good care, a philosophy of care, based on Callista Roy's adaptation model, was formulated for the purpose of providing developmentally supportive, family-centered care, and for defining good care and the professional nurse role. The philosophy describes the infant's needs and environment. Caring activities focus on support of the infant's and his parent's roles and self-concept in their progress towards independence from professional assistance. The philosophy is an essential component in the introductory program which integrates newly recruited personnel from different disciplines into the unit. It is presented as a suggestion of how a model-based philosophy of care can be formulated by operationalization of the theoretical concepts of a nursing model.