Health care professionals' experiences of parental presence and participation in neonatal intensive care unit

Abstract

In a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), the care is carried out not only by health care professionals but also by parents. The aim was to describe from a lifeworld hermeneutics approach, health care professionals' experience of parents' presence and participation in the care of their child in the NICU. Twenty health care professionals in two NICUs were interviewed. The interpretations of four themes indicate that the care personnel in NICU were ambivalent towards the presence of parents and set limits including dictating conditions for parental participation. In the encounter with the parents, they balanced between closeness and distance and had difficulty in meeting worried parents. There was little ability to deal with parents in crisis in the correct manner and sometimes an avoiding attitude was present. The care environment obstructed the personnel's endeavours to involve the parents in the care of their child. The result shows there is a need to train personnel in the art of dealing with parents in crisis. This should include developing the care environment to allow parents to be present and take part in the care of their child but also give personnel the prerequisites to make this possible. Key words: Health care professional, parental participation, newborn caring, neonatal intensive care unit, lifeworld, hermeneutics