Parents and Health Care Teams Perceptions of Communication in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

Abstract

Parents experience a lot of stress in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Then effective communication between parents and members of the care team is an essential component of improving the quality of care. The present study was conducted by qualitative exploratory research method for explaining parents and health care teams' perceptions of communication in NICU. We selected 39 participants by purposive sampling. We collected data through in-depth semi-structured, face-to-face interviews. The transcripts were analysed using the conventional content analysis approach. Three themes were obtained by analyzing the data included, the nature of communication, the theme of factors affecting successful communication, the theme of factor affecting continuity communication. All members of the care team should be involved in parent communication. But according to our results, nurses are more responsible for communicating with parents. Finding from the study indicates the key role of nurses in communicating in the NICU. It is necessary to teach physicians and nurses, especially physicians, how to communicate with parents. Also, health system authorities have an important role in continuing education on communication methods in the NICU.