How to hold an effective NICU family meeting: capturing parent perspectives to build a more robust framework

OBJECTIVE: To record the content and parental perceptions of family meetings in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) to improve existing frameworks for facilitating these meetings. STUDY DESIGN: A prospective, mixed-methods study. NICU family meetings were audio-recorded, transcribed, and analyzed by an iteratively derived coding framework until thematic saturation. We used descriptive statistics of parental post-meeting assessments. RESULTS: Qualitative analysis of 21 meetings identified both Communication Facilitators and Barriers. Facilitators included use of visual-aids and participation of social workers to clarify information for parents. Barriers included staff rarely eliciting parental comprehension (3 meetings) or concerns (5) before providing new information, resulting in 39% of parents reporting they didn’t ask questions they wanted to ask. In 33% of meetings an important participant was absent. CONCLUSIONS: This novel qualitative and quantitative dataset of NICU family meetings highlights areas for improving communication. Attention to these components may improve parental perceptions of family meetings.