Finnish Parents' Responsibilities for Their Infant's Care When They Stayed in a Single Family Room in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

Abstract

PurposeTo describe parents' perceptions of their responsibilities for their infant's care during admission to a single family room in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Design and methodsA qualitative study with semi-structured individual interviews conducted at a family-centered level III Finnish NICU in late 2016 and early 2017. The participants were 10 mothers and nine fathers of infants aged from six days to eight months. The data were analyzed with inductive content analysis. ResultsThe parents wanted to take responsibility for their infant's care during their stay in a single family room in the NICU, because it prepared them for their infant's discharge. The mothers and fathers reported that their responsibilities supported them as they grew into parenthood and enabled their infants' rights. On the other hand, the parents needed nurses to empower them to commit to, and take, responsibility for their infant's care and share decision making. The nurses also taught the parents caring skills. ConclusionsEmpowering parents to take responsibility enabled their infant's rights during their stay in a single family room in the NICU. More research is needed about how nurses transfer these responsibilities to parents and how those are connected to the infant's rights and well-being. Practice implicationsOrganizations who provide single family rooms in NICUs need to develop guidelines that facilitate the responsibilities that parents and nurses have to care for the infants. Although parents are the infant's primary caregivers, they depend on nurses to ensure their infant is safely cared for.