Assessing needs of families with premature newborns in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

Alina Vaškelytė, Rūta Butkevičienė, David Klemmac¹

Department of Nursing and Care, Kaunas University of Medicine, Lithuania, ¹University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, United States of America

Key words: needs; families; premature newborn; parents of newborns; nurses.

Summary. The aim of this study was to identify needs of families with premature newborns in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, perceived by parents and nurses. The study was conducted in the Kaunas Perinatal Center, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Hospital of Kaunas University of Medicine. The sample consisted of 181 parents and 37 nurses. The NICU Family Needs Inventory was used for data collection. The instrument included five dimensions of needs. Reliability of the scale was identified as 0.94 using Cronbach’s α.

Results. The importance of the needs by parents was prioritized as following: assurance, proximity, information, support, and comfort, and by nurses – assurance, information, proximity, support, and comfort. The needs for assurance, proximity, and information were significantly more important for parents as compared with nurses. Needs for support were significantly more important for nurses. Forty-seven (83.9%) items (out of 56) were identified as important by parents and 49 (87.5%) items – by nurses. Both parents and nurses identified the same 7 items within the group of 10 most important. Parents and nurses identified the same ⁷ items within the group of 10 least important.

Conclusions. Both groups of respondents identified needs for assurance as the most important for parents. The needs for comfort were perceived as the least important by parents and nurses. All groups of needs, except the needs for support, were significantly more important for parents as compared with nurses. Both parents and nurses identified the same 44 items (out of 56) as important for parents in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. The 10 most important need statements and 10 least important need statements were identified by parents and nurses.

Correspondence to A. Vaškelytė, Department of Nursing and Care, Kaunas University of Medicine, Eivenių 2, 50009 Kaunas, Lithuania. E-mail: alina_v@med.kmu.lt

Received 14 April 2008, accepted 3 April 2009