Addressing the Needs of Mothers with Infants in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit: A Qualitative Secondary Analysis

Purpose@#Mothers of infants hospitalized in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) need to be recognized as essential partners of the care team as their presence and involvement are key to infants' health and developmental outcomes. Addressing mothers' perceived needs is beneficial for the improvement of supportive nursing care; however, little qualitative research on their unmet needs has been conducted in South Korea. This study assessed mothers' perspectives on their NICU experiences and their unmet needs within the South Korean cultural context. @*Methods@#A cross-sectional, multicentered, secondary analysis study was conducted using the written responses to an open-ended questionnaire. Of the 344 NICU-experienced mothers, 232 throughout South Korea (seven cities and five provinces) voluntarily completed the questionnaire via smartphone-based or web-based surveys. Their narrative responses were analyzed using thematic content analysis guided by the critical incident technique. @*Results@#Four themes emerged. NICU-experienced mothers of preterm infants referred to the “family-friendly environment” (16.4%) as a positive experience. The greatest unmet need was “relationship-based support” (58.2%), followed by “information and education-based support” (20.0%) and “system-level challenges” (5.4%). @*Conclusion@#The importance of creating a family-friendly NICU environment should be emphasized by ensuring 24-hour unrestricted access and encouraging active parental involvement in infant care, as well as actively supporting NICU families through supportive words and actions. The assurance of antiinfection management and better staffing levels should be fundamentally guaranteed to NICU staff.

Addressing the Needs of Mothers with Infants in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit: A Qualitative Secondary Analysis

Purpose@#Mothers of infants hospitalized in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) need to be recognized as essential partners of the care team as their presence and involvement are key to infants' health and developmental outcomes. Addressing mothers' perceived needs is beneficial for the improvement of supportive nursing care; however, little qualitative research on their unmet needs has been conducted in South Korea. This study assessed mothers' perspectives on their NICU experiences and their unmet needs within the South Korean cultural context. @*Methods@#A cross-sectional, multicentered, secondary analysis study was conducted using the written responses to an open-ended questionnaire. Of the 344 NICU-experienced mothers, 232 throughout South Korea (seven cities and five provinces) voluntarily completed the questionnaire via smartphone-based or web-based surveys. Their narrative responses were analyzed using thematic content analysis guided by the critical incident technique. @*Results@#Four themes emerged. NICU-experienced mothers of preterm infants referred to the “family-friendly environment” (16.4%) as a positive experience. The greatest unmet need was “relationship-based support” (58.2%), followed by “information and education-based support” (20.0%) and “system-level challenges” (5.4%). @*Conclusion@#The importance of creating a family-friendly NICU environment should be emphasized by ensuring 24-hour unrestricted access and encouraging active parental involvement in infant care, as well as actively supporting NICU families through supportive words and actions. The assurance of antiinfection management and better staffing levels should be fundamentally guaranteed to NICU staff.

Exploring Psycho-social Determinants to Child Neglect and Abuse among Caregivers with Young Children

PURPOSE: The objective of this study was to investigate the relations among psycho-social factors regarding child neglect and abuse using the data from the 2013 Korea National Survey on Children and Youth. METHODS: Data from a sample of 1,062 primary caregivers with young children were analyzed with the SPSS and AMOS programs to examine the interrelationships among depression, parenting stress, marital satisfaction, parent-child attachment, and child neglect or maltreatment. RESULTS: Depression, stress, and attachment had a direct influence on child neglect and abuse. Satisfaction with marital relationship, parenting stress, and attachment were found to play mediating roles in accounting for child neglect and abuse, explaining 12% of the variance. The results of multi group path analysis showed that some coefficients were different according to the age group of the children. For caregivers with infants, parenting stress did not predict either attachment or child maltreatment, whereas for caregivers with toddlers, depression did not have a significant effect on attachment. CONCLUSION: In order to prevent child maltreatment, efforts should be made to develop community-based psycho-social support interventions focused on marital relationship as well as parent-child dyads and to provide practical child care support.

Maternal Role Development in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Graduate Mothers of Premature Infant

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to determine the predictive factors for maternal role development for mothers of premature infants. METHODS: A descriptive correlational study was conducted. A total sample of 121 mothers of premature infants following discharge from the neonatal intensive care unit were recruited using two strategies; an internet-based survey and an in-person data collection in a tertiary university hospital in Korea. A self-report questionnaire was used to collect data regarding personal, birth variables, marital intimacy, maternal attachment, maternal identity and maternal role development. RESULTS: A hierarchical multiple regression analysis indicated that parity, maternal attachment, marital intimacy and maternal identity were predictors for maternal role development for mothers of premature infants, accounting for 70% of the variance. Among these variables, maternal attachment is the most powerful predictor for maternal role development. CONCLUSION: Nursing interventions during hospitalization to post-discharge education that includes parents of premature babies with positive interaction between couples strengthening marital intimacy and promotes maternal attachment that leads to integrate maternal identity should be considered by priority. Community-based family services such as home visits should be focused on maximizing the predictive factors for maternal role development in transition to motherhood that can contribute to maternal health as well as optimal growth and development of premature infants.