Spiritual and religious components of patient care in the neonatal intensive care unit: sacred themes in a secular setting.
OBJECTIVE
We hypothesized that spiritual distress was a common, unrecognized theme for neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) care providers.


METHODS
An anonymous questionnaire form assigned to a data table in a relational database was designed.


RESULTS
Surveys were completed by 66% of NICU staff. All respondents viewed a family's spiritual and religious concerns as having a place in patient care. Eighty-three percent reported praying for babies privately. Asked what theological sense they made of suffering of NICU babies, 2% replied that children do not suffer in the NICU. Regarding psychological suffering of families, the majority felt God could prevent this, with parents differing (p = 0.039) from nonparents.


CONCLUSIONS
There exists a strong undercurrent of spirituality and religiosity in the study NICU. These data document actual religious and spiritual attitudes and practices and support a need for pastoral resources for both families and care providers. NICU care providers approach difficulties of their work potentially within a religious and spiritual rather than a uniquely secular framework.
Catlin
E A
EA
Neonatology Unit, Department of Pediatrics, MassGeneral Hospital for Children, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
Guillemin
J H
JH
Thiel
M M
MM
Hammond
S
S
Wang
M L
ML
O'Donnell
J
J
D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006282:Health Personnel / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007363:Intensive Care Units, Neonatal; D015931:Intensive Care, Neonatal / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010684:Philosophy; D012067:Religion; D029181:Spirituality; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires