Challenges Parents Face in Neonatal Intensive Care
What challenges do parents face when their premature baby is in intensive care? Should parents be allowed to stay overnight, if so does it lead them to be more stressed? Are they bad parents because they do not stay or do they need to be more involved?
The whole perspective of a child being in intensive care is hard, and especially for parents who do not know how to handle the situation of having their newborn baby in intensive care. There are many challenges that parents face; facing emotional problems is the biggest challenge. Not knowing how to handle the whole situation of seeing their new born child in a situation like intensive care is pretty hard. It is pretty intimidating and not being to take care and be able to hold their baby all day like they would want to, is also hard. Parents face high levels of distress, anxiety, depression, and trauma symptoms. Mothers have a harder time dealing with their emotions. They carried their baby inside them for several months, have felt the kicks and the movements, and they often feel like a failure feeling guilt and shame. A mother wants the best for their baby and they often think that their baby will have complications with growth and development, and often blaming themselves for giving birth to an unhealthy baby wondering what they could have done differently. Because of the parents stress and anxiety of not knowing what will happen, there is an inability to preform a normal parenting role. Perhaps the best way for parents to be able to relax and be more helpful to their babies is to move on from the situation and only look forward the health of the child. Parents also loose one of the best memories they wish they could keep fo...
... middle of paper ...
...tant as well. One will want to spend as much time possible with their baby in the NICU. Getting as much sleep as possible, exercise, and knowing how to manage stress is crucial, otherwise one can become sick and in that state it will be hardly impossible to be able to visit the baby because of how fast germs can spread. Packing healthy snacks for the day while being in the NICU is an easy way to take care of oneself, and not having to rely on hospital cafeteria that one may not like.
One must accept the fact that ones newborn has to live away from home, for the babies survival. Creating a home away from hope can make things seem smoother and one can cope better. Putting family photos around the incubator or personal clothing that one had bought, blankets, pajamas, etc. can make it easier to accept the situation and to look forward for a long healthy life together.
the emotions of the child in the sick bay; at this point we are not
Neonatal nursing is a field of nursing designed especially for both newborns and infants up to 28 days old. The term neonatal comes from neo, "new", and natal, "pertaining to birth or origin”. Neonatal nurses are a vital part of the neonatal care team. These are trained professionals who concentrate on ensuring that the newborn infants under their care are able to survive whatever potential life threatening event they encounter. They treat infants that are born with a variety of life threatening issues that include instances of prematurity, congenital birth defects, surgery related problems, cardiac malformations, severe burns, or acute infection. Neonatal care in hospitals was always done by the nursing staff but it did not officially become a specialized medical field until well into 1960s. This was due to the numerous advancements in both medical care training and related technology that allowed for the improved treatment and survival rate of premature babies. According to the March of Dimes, one of every thirteen babies born in the United States annually suffers from low birth weight. This is a leading cause in 65% of infant deaths. Therefore, nurses play a very important role in providing round the clock care for these infants, those born with birth defects or other life threatening illness. In addition, these nurses also tend to healthy babies while their mothers recover from the birthing process. Prior to the advent of this specialized nursing field at risk newborn infants were mostly cared for by obstetricians and midwives who had limited resources to help them survive (Meeks 3).
At Cook Children’s Hospital, NICU parents are not only seen as the parents of the infants, but they also incorporate them as part of the team. Parents are highly encouraged to spend as much time as they possibly can with their premature infants, to have physical contact with them by giving them kangaroo time, which allows parents to have skin-to-skin contact with their infant, as soon as the infant reaches the stage in which he or she is a suitable candidate to be in physical contact with their parents. Siblings who are over 3 are allowed to visit their siblings at the NICU at specific times of the day, and child life specialists help siblings understand what is going on with their baby brother or sister who is in the NICU. If they have any specific questions, the child life specialist is there to assist them. Families are referred to other institutions that will be able to help them if their facilities aren’t able to fulfill their needs. One of the institutions that...
I think the most important quality for a NICU nurse is thorough knowledge, or the drive to obtain more. I want to share knowledge with parents to make it easier for them to learn and know everything they can about their child’s medical condition. I can help translate between the parents and the doctor’s medical jargon to make parents feel more as ease and understand their
I appreciate that you have decided to share your personal experience within this post. Pediatric care is an entity within itself within the medical field. Ill children are extremely difficult to manage as patients and have the tendency to have a rapid change in status while patients in the hospital. Providing safe care for pediatrics during hospitalization is an area that I am not too familiar with. Working the ER I have had many pediatric patients, but the parents always remain with the patient. When peds patients are admitted, hospital protocol states that the patient must be present during the transfer of the patient to the admitting floor. So, in my experience the parent always provides the safety aspect of care in the ER, patient are expected
Modercin-McCarthy M. A., McCue S., Walker J. Preterm infants and stress: A tool for the neonatal nurse. J Perinat Neonatal Nurs, 1997; 10, 62-71.
There are more than 70% of premature babies that are born between 34 and 36 weeks gestation a year. When a baby is born early, or born with birth defects, the Neonatal Intensive Care unit is its first home. The nurse’s in the NICU have the difficult job of preparing baby’s and parents for a health life together. A baby who has been put into the NICU will stay there until it is healthy enough to go home.
Some of the current issues surrounding paediatric palliative care is that health care providers, mainly nurses are feeling the burnout and frustrations of caring for a dying child. Many nurses have claimed to have moral and ethical distress which in turn, can lead to feelings of helplessness and anger (Morgan, 2009, p. 88). Health care providers may also feel personal pain during the care of a dying child (Morgan, 2009, p. 88). Many health care providers and families feel like there is a lack of communication about the disease and treatments the child is receiving, as well as the patients often feel like they do not have a voice about treatments (Hsiao, Evan & Zeltzer, 2007, p.361). The lack of education and knowledge about paediatric palliative care leads to society treating the subject of paediatric palliative as taboo and forbidden to talk about because no one wants to admit that children unfortunately die (Morgan, 2009, p. 87).
The societal taboo associated with death and dying is only worsened when death becomes imminent for an infant or child. Pediatric death and dying is a seldom discussed and often evaded topic in healthcare. This topic, although somber and challenging, is relevant for those nurses who encounter pediatric death and dying first hand. The following discussion will define death and dying in a pediatric population, identify the role of the bedside nurse in support of the dying child and parents of child, the bedside nurse’s role in an interdisciplinary team on a floor where death is a common occurrence, and promotion of nursing self-care to combat compassion fatigue and burnout.
This is achieved through the close relationship of the family members the pediatric patient. Safety is increased because the family members are treated as part of the health care team and not simply visitors (Moore, Coker, DuBuisson, Swett, & Edwards, 2003). Furthermore, the patients are able to communicate with personnel about what they see happening to their child as well as making decisions regarding what treatments they want their infant to receive (Moore et al., 2003). The input from the patient 's family is very important in ensuring patient safety because the family members know the patient much better than medical staff (IWK Health Centre, 2016). This allows family members to more acutely notice changes in the pediatric patients status which allows them to quickly notify health care professionals. This could prove very beneficial when providing care for a pediatric patient in intensive
A neonatologist has many tasks and responsibilities before, during, and after the birth of an at-risk newborn. If there is reason to believe there are going to be complications with a birth that would cause negative side effects for the infant, a neonatologist will be brought in to help. In these high-risk situations, a team effort is required and the neonatologist takes the lead position. The neonatologist will be responsible for advising the parents on what to expect during and after labor. After the infant is born, the neonatologist has to find a method to properly care for the baby. Because most premature babies have a low birth-weight, their lungs need to be supported and they need to be kept warm. During this whole process, the neonatologist interacts with the parents to keep them updated on their baby’s condition (Weaver, 2009).
Levine’s Conservation Model has produced a suitable framework to study phenomena as it relates to nursing (Schaefer, 1991). Levine’s Conservation Model was utilized in a recent study by Mettford and Alligood (2011) to test a theory of health promotion for preterm infants. The article stated, “this study provides evidence that the Theory of Health Promotion for Preterm Infants based on Levine 's Conservation Model of Nursing holds promise as a theoretical framework to guide neonatal nursing practice and improve the health outcomes of nursing 's tiniest patients” (Mettford & Alligood,
When the baby is admitted to the NICU, the mother is unable to have the usual bonding moments where she holds and comforts her newborn. Rather, when visiting with her child, she is required to take endless precautions, has limited time to be with her baby, and must see her little child connected to many machines helping to keep the baby stable (Shanmugam & Ramachandra, 2015). In their study, Shanmugam and Ramachandra (2015) questioned 100 mothers of neonates in the NICU, and recorded the correlation between their stress level and coping strategies. They found that 38 of the mothers had severe stress, 28 had moderate stress, and the remaining had mild stress. Of these women, 25% had good coping, 50% had moderate coping, and 25% had poor coping. A large finding from this study was that nurses and health care providers played a very big role in helping to reduce the stress levels of the mothers by talking with them and listening to their concerns, while also providing adequate care for their children. If the mother is using negative coping strategies, such as holding in all of her concerns and filling her mind with the thoughts of death, financial issues, and fear of the unknown, she is going to cause her body great harm (Shanmugam & Ramachandra,
In the article "A Response to Parents after the Loss of a Baby" it explained how the parents will feel. This will be a very hard time for the parents and they must see the reality and find ways to grieve otherwise they won't be able to move on ("A Response to Parents after the Loss of a Baby" 3). Continuing on in that same article, parents are initially shocked when it happens and then will become very sad and will stay in that state for while ("A Response to Parents after the Loss of a Baby" 6). The article continued to say, the parents will eventually get even more different emotions spinning around in their heads like shock, sadness, anger, guilt, anxiety, or depression which can cause them to mad at themselves or people with babies ("A Response to Parents after the Loss of a Baby" 15). The article goes on to explain how parents will become paranoid and will never want to let their other children out of sight, in fear of something bad happening to them. This is because of the fear they still face on a day to day basis ("A Response to Parents after the Loss of a Baby" 22). Also in the article, it explained what they parents can do to help them move forward and stay positive. Parents that have had a baby die from SIDS are advised to talk to other parents that have also gone through that so they know they aren't alone. Parents should also take some time for themselves by sleeping or running errands so they are not focusing on it ("A Response to Parents after the Loss of a Baby" 8). Laura S. Hillman said in that article "mothers and fathers express their grief in different ways. Mothers generally need to 'talk out' their grief while fathers tend to 'suffer in silence.' Fathers may find it more difficult to ask for help and support from others" ("A Response to Parents after the Loss of a Baby" 24). People will realize their
Here are five tips from our Grapevine obgyns to help you bond with your baby if a NICU stay is required.