Competing Tensions: Nurse Perceptions of Family-Centered Care and Parents' Needs in Neonatal Care

Adv Neonatal Care. 2024 Feb 1;24(1):35-42. doi: 10.1097/ANC.0000000000001136. Epub 2024 Jan 9.ABSTRACTBACKGROUND: Family-centered care is founded upon collaboration between parents and healthcare professionals, caring for a child and parents as one entity. The unfamiliar neonatal environment and complexity of care can make family-centered care challenging.PURPOSE: To explore neonatal nurses' perceptions of family-centered care and parents' cultural needs.METHODS: This was a qualitative descriptive study using interviews to gather data from registered nurses, and analyzed using inductive content analysis.RESULTS: Ten neonatal nurses participated in online interviews, lasting an average of 25 minutes. Parents' cultural needs were poorly understood and assumed synonymous with family-centered care. While all acknowledged the importance of family-centered care, most described tasks to parent-infant bonding, rather than a broader embodiment of family-centered care. In time of uncertainty, emergent clinical priorities took priority over a family-centered approach to care. Cultural care was poorly understood, and care tasks associated with supporting parent-infant bonding suggest further work is necessary to promote embodiment of family-centered care beyond individual tasks. While emergent clinical priorities and neonate well-being will always be the priority, finding a way to respond that concords with the ethos of family-centered care is also essential.IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE AND...
Source: Advances in Neonatal Care - Category: Nursing Authors: Source Type: research