Parental perceptions and experiences of care in the surgical neonatal intensive care unit

BACKGROUND: Parents endure significant stress when their newborns require surgery while in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Our study aims to explore the surgical NICU experience from the parents’ perspective and identify areas that may improve this experience. A secondary objective was to integrate their feedback to refine the implementation strategy of the neonatal enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS(®)) guideline. METHODS: In December 2019, five surgical NICU parents participated in a focus group. Conversation surrounded parents’ perspectives and experiences of the surgical NICU. Inductive analysis was performed to identify data, themes, and concepts that emerged from the discussion. RESULTS: Participants identified four major interrelated themes that impacted the surgical parents’ NICU experience. These themes include (1) parental state, both physical and emotional, (2) the altered parental caregiver role which necessitates identifying alternative meaningful parental experiences, (3) the care team dynamic, incorporating consistency and effective communication, and (4) the discharge process which may be significantly eased through graduated, hands-on training. CONCLUSION: Key elements of the neonatal ERAS(®) guideline address major themes and stressors identified by parents. The parental perspective may help clinicians appreciate the parent surgical NICU experience and assist in improving family-centered care to surgical infants and their families.