Needs Perceived by Parents of Preterm Infants: Integrating Care Into the Early Discharge Process1
Section snippets
Design
The study was structured using a qualitative descriptive design (Howitt, 2013). This approach was chosen to understand the direct experience and perceptions of parents of a preterm infant.
Participants
The sampling was intentional and based on inclusion and exclusion criteria (criterion sample) (Flick, 2007, Howitt, 2013, Patton, 1990). The following inclusion criteria were used: a) being the father or mother of a preterm infant and b) hospitalization in the neonatal care unit. An exclusion criterion was
Results
The results were organized based on the two central themes that emerged from the analysis, as follows: a) the emotional experience and obstacles to care during hospitalization and b) the emotional experiences and obstacles at home: efficacy of the early discharge program. In each section, the differences based on the heterogeneous criteria (gender, being first-time parents and participation in the early discharge program vs standard program) were discussed.
Discussion
The objective of this study was to identify the experiences, needs, problems and difficulties of fathers and mothers of preterm infants during hospitalization and after discharge, who did and did not participate in an early discharge program. The current study reported the obstacles experienced by the parents of preterm infants during hospitalization and after discharge, providing important and useful information to improve the efficacy of early discharge programs. Consistent with previous
Acknowledgments
This research study forms part of the research project titled "Effectiveness of an early discharge intervention in preterm infants including home follow-up visits from a nurse specialized in neonatal care" (Reference: FIS 11/0283) funded by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III and the Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (Programa FEDER). Principal Investigator: Isabel Toral López.
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2023, Australian Critical CareCitation Excerpt :Therefore, the phase near discharge is appropriate for healthcare providers to teach the parents how to care for preterm infants, such as feeding, comforting, and emergency coping.19,45 Moreover, starting the education through information or hands-on support as soon as the transition was initiated in small doses could prevent parents from being overwhelmed with information at a point.46–48 Existing qualitative research describes parents' experiences and needs49,50 related to their logistics around the discharge transition.
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2022, Journal of Pediatric NursingMothers’ needs in discharge planning for low birth weight babies: A qualitative study
2022, Journal of Neonatal NursingCitation Excerpt :Parents of LBW babies have different at-home baby-care needs. These needs include developing the abilities to cope with their parental role, their relationship with their baby, their changing emotions, and managing their personal needs (Boykova, 2016; Hutchinson et al., 2012; Toral-López et al., 2016). Considering the mother's needs during discharge planning increases a mother's readiness and facilitates the baby's transition from hospital to home (Hariati et al., 2020; Rustina et al., 2016).
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2021, Journal of Neonatal NursingCitation Excerpt :Similar findings were reported by Schubert et al. (2013), who demonstrated that nurses tend to omit activities associated with planning and preparing for a patient’ discharge. Other notable studies include those by Toral-López et al. (2016) and Purdy et al. (2015), Toral-López reported educational and organizational problems when children are discharged from an ICU. Purdy emphasized the importance of interdisciplinary team meetings before patient discharge, where the family's readiness for subsequent care is evaluated and further medical management is discussed.
Needs of parents of very preterm infants in Neonatal Intensive Care Units: A mixed methods study
2019, Intensive and Critical Care NursingCitation Excerpt :This is particularly significant in the context of the socio-economic situation that parents find themselves in. The need for reinforcing privacy during information provision as well as in NICU ward join the concern from recent studies revealing the importance of a consistent and continuous care (Toral-Lopez et al., 2016) and underlining the confidentiality guarantee during handovers and ward rounds in NICU (Banerjee et al., 2018). Moreover, it challenges the idea that parents tend to neglect their comfort needs (Mundy, 2010; Wang et al., 2016).
Evolution of care indicators after an early discharge intervention in preterm infants
2017, Enfermeria Clinica
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Conflict of Interest: Authors declare no conflict of interest.
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These authors contributed equally to this work.