Mother-clinician discussions in the neonatal intensive care unit: agree to disagree?
OBJECTIVE
To compare mothers' and clinicians' understanding of an infant's illness and perceptions of discussion quality in the neonatal intensive care unit.


METHODS
English-speaking mothers with an infant admitted to the intensive care unit for at least 48 h were interviewed using a semi-structured survey. The clinician whom the mother had spoken to and identified was also surveyed. Interviews were audiotaped and transcribed.


RESULTS
A total of 101 mother-clinician pairs were interviewed. Most mothers (89%) and clinicians (92%) felt that their discussions had gone well. Almost all mothers could identify one of their infant's diagnoses (100%) and treatments (93.4%). Mothers and clinicians disagreed on infant illness severity 45% of the time. The majority of mothers (62.5%) who disagreed with clinician estimate of infant illness severity believed their infant to be less sick than indicated by the clinician.


CONCLUSIONS
Mother-clinician satisfaction with communication does not ensure mother-clinician agreement about an infant's medical status.
Division of Neonatology, Department of Pediatrics, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA.
S
S
de Wit
P K
PK
Donohue
J
J
Shepard
R D
RD
Boss
D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001294:Attitude to Health; D003258:Consumer Behavior; D016638:Critical Illness / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D034462:Dissent and Disputes; D005260:Female; D057220:Health Literacy; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007363:Intensive Care Units, Neonatal; D015931:Intensive Care, Neonatal / Q000379:methods / Q000523:psychology; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology*; D062072:Patient Acuity; D036301:Qualitative Research; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D012938:Social Perception; D000078329:Workforce