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Support needs of parents of sick and/or preterm infants admitted to a neonatal unit

journal contribution
posted on 2009-07-01, 00:00 authored by C Tran, A Medhurst, Beverly O'Connell
The sudden unexpected delivery of a preterm infant elicits many emotional responses from parents, with studies confirming the importance of providing parents with nursing support. The purpose of this study was to measure parents' perception of the type and level of support that nurses provided in an Australian neonatal unit, and to determine the extent to which parents were satisfied with the support currently provided. A convenience sample of 112 parents in an Australian tertiary neonatal unit were invited to complete the nurse parent support tool (NPST), which is a 21-item questionnaire used to measure the level of nursing support. The NPST consists of four domains -emotional, informational, appraisal and instrumental support. A second tool was used to assess parent satisfaction with nurse-to-parent support. A total of 62 parents completed the NPST and satisfaction tool.

Results showed that instrumental support had the highest mean score for both nurse-to-parent support 4.51 (out of 5) and 4.36 for satisfaction. The mean score for nursing support was 4.21 followed by satisfaction with nurse-to-parent support at 4.16. In contrast, emotional support had the lowest mean score for both nurse-to-parent support at 3.94 and 3.97 for satisfaction. Parents indicated that they needed further support with lactation, breastfeeding and assistance with parenting skills. Overall, results indicated that parent perception of nursing support was positive and that parents were highly satisfied with the nursing support provided in the neonatal unit. However, some attention needs to be given to providing more support and information on breastfeeding and parenting skills.

History

Journal

Neonatal, paediatric and child health nursing

Volume

12

Issue

2

Pagination

12 - 17

Publisher

Cambridge Publishing

Location

West Leaderville, W.A.

ISSN

1441-6638

Language

eng

Publication classification

C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal

Copyright notice

2009, Neonatal Paediatric and Child Health Nursing

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