The parental experience of having an infant in the newborn intensive care unit.
The purpose of this systematic review was to explore and describe the experience of parents with an infant in the newborn intensive care unit (NICU). A literature search covering the period 1998-2008 was conducted. Fourteen articles reporting qualitative studies describing parental experiences and meeting the inclusion criteria were evaluated and themes were identified. Findings revealed that parents with an infant in the NICU experience depression, anxiety, stress, and loss of control, and they vacillate between feelings of inclusion and exclusion related to the provision of health care to their neonate. Nursing interventions that promote positive psychosocial outcomes are needed to decrease parental feelings of stress, anxiety, and loss of control. Interventions need to focus on family-centered and developmentally supportive care.
HALA M. OBEIDAT is an assistant professor of nursing in Princess Muna College of Nursing at Mutah University in Amman, Jordan, where she has taught pediatric and neonatal nursing courses for 18 years. ELAINE A. BOND is Director of the Nursing Doctoral Program at the University of Jordan in Amman. She is also a Fulbright Scholar, a John A. Widstoe Fellow, faculty emeritus at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, and a member of Phi Kappa Phi and the Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing. LYNN CLARK CALLISTER is a professor of nursing at Brigham Young University, where she has taught for 21 years. She was a visiting professor in the Faculty of Nursing at the University of Jordan and has conducted cross-cultural studies of childbearing women and their families for more than 20 years.
Hala M
HM
Obeidat
Elaine A
EA
Bond
Lynn Clark
LC
Callister