Catherine L Wraight 1,2 , Jennifer McCoy 1 , William Meadow 1 Show Affiliations »
Abstract
AIM: To determine whether parents of critically ill premature infants feel that neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) therapy is worthwhile, independent of their infant's outcome. METHODS: The parent(s) of ventilated infants in the NICU were interviewed. Prominent themes were identified within the text of transcribed interviews and the frequency of each theme tabulated. RESULTS: The parents of 10 infants were interviewed. All parents experienced stress and understood the uncertain future of their infants. Parents remained optimistic and uniformly expressed that NICU intervention was 'worth it'. No parent described concern about 'torture', 'cruelty' or 'futile care'. CONCLUSION: Although parents experience significant stress while their infant is in the NICU, their emotional experiences are much more broad. They feel confident in their decision to give their child a chance, a responsibility to be informed and to make the best decisions they can and remain hopeful for a good outcome regardless of their child's condition. ©2015 Foundation Acta Paediatrica. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
AIM: To determine whether parents of critically ill premature infants feel that neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) therapy is worthwhile, independent of their infant 's outcome. METHODS: The parent(s) of ventilated infants in the NICU were interviewed. Prominent themes were identified within the text of transcribed interviews and the frequency of each theme tabulated. RESULTS: The parents of 10 infants were interviewed. All parents experienced stress and understood the uncertain future of their infants . Parents remained optimistic and uniformly expressed that NICU intervention was 'worth it'. No parent described concern about 'torture', 'cruelty' or 'futile care'. CONCLUSION: Although parents experience significant stress while their infant is in the NICU, their emotional experiences are much more broad. They feel confident in their decision to give their child a chance, a responsibility to be informed and to make the best decisions they can and remain hopeful for a good outcome regardless of their child 's condition. ©2015 Foundation Acta Paediatrica. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Entities: Species
Keywords:
NICU Environment; Neonatal intensive care; Parental stress
Mesh： See more »
Year: 2015
PMID： 26058331 DOI： 10.1111/apa.13071
Source DB: PubMed Journal: Acta Paediatr ISSN： 0803-5253 Impact factor: 2.299