Parent Readiness for Their Preterm Infant's Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Discharge.

This study aims to examine the influence of hospital experience factors on parental discharge readiness, accounting for key background characteristics. Parents/guardians of infants 33 weeks of gestation or less at birth receiving neonatal intensive care at 6 sites were enrolled from April 2017 to August 2018. Participants completed surveys at enrollment, 3 weeks later, and at discharge. Multiple regression analysis assessed relationships between parental experience, well-being, and perceived readiness for infant discharge, adjusting for socioenvironmental, infant clinical, and parent demographic characteristics. Most (77%) of the 139 parents reported high levels of readiness for their infant's discharge and 92% reported high self-efficacy at discharge. The multiple regression model accounted for 40% of the variance in discharge readiness. Perceptions of family-centered care accounted for 12% of the variance; measures of parent well-being, anxiety, and parenting self-efficacy accounted for an additional 16% of the variance; parent characteristics accounted for an additional 9%; and infant characteristics accounted for less than 3% of the variance. Parental perceptions of the family-centeredness of the hospital experience, anxiety, and parenting self-efficacy accounted for a substantial proportion of the variance in readiness for discharge scores among parents of preterm infant. These influential perceptions are potentially modifiable by nursing-led interventions.

What parents want to know about caring for their preterm infant: A longitudinal descriptive study.

OBJECTIVES: To describe the characteristics of parent knowledge needs and skill acquisition over the course of their infant's neonatal intensive care unit hospitalization. METHODS: 148 parents/guardians of infants ≤33 week gestation enrolled during the usual care phase of a multi-site quasi-experimental study, completing weekly surveys about their learning needs for the coming week and skills learned in the past week. RESULTS: The topics of most interest or concern for parents included feeding their infant and their infant's medical course. Knowledge needs varied by phase of hospitalization (early, middle, late) and by parent age, prior parenting experience, infant gestational age and hospital length of stay. The most common skills learned related to feeding and basic infant care. The number of skills parents reported learning each week varied by parent age, gender, and education. CONCLUSIONS: Parents of preterm infants expressed specific learning needs and acquisition of skills that varied over the course of the hospitalization and by parent and infant characteristics. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: The findings can be used to improve parent learning experiences so that they can become full partners in their infant's caregiving and are better prepared to care for their infant after discharge. STUDY REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov, ID NCT03418870.