Father's perceptions and care involvement for their very preterm infants at French neonatal intensive care units.

Objectives: We aimed to evaluate (1) fathers' perceptions and care involvement for their very premature infants and their views of the hospitalization period based on parental reports and (2) their evolution over time. Methods: We used an online parental survey to assess answers from parents of very preterm infants who were successfully discharged from French neonatal units. We analysed answers from February 2014 to January 2019 to an anonymous internet-based survey from the GREEN committee of the French Neonatal Society. Responses were compared for period 1 (P1, 1998 to 2013) and period 2 (P2, 2014 to 2019). Results: We analyzed 2,483 surveys, 124 (5%) from fathers and 2,359 (95%) from mothers. At birth, 1,845 (80%) fathers were present in the hospital, but only 879 (38%) were near the mother. The presence of fathers in the NICU increased from P1 to P2 (34.5% vs. 43.1%, p = 0.03). Nearly two thirds of fathers accompanied their infants during transfer to the NICU (1,204 fathers, 60.6%). Fathers and mothers had similar perceptions regarding relationships with caregivers and skin-to-skin contact with their infants. However, more fathers than mothers felt welcome in the NICU and in care involvement regarding requests for their wishes when they met their infant (79% vs. 60%, p = 0.02) and in the presentation of the NICU (91% vs. 76%; p = 0.03). Mothers and fathers significantly differed in the caring procedures they performed (p = 0.01), procedures they did not perform but wanted to perform (p < 0.001), and procedures they did not perform and did not want to perform (p < 0.01). Conclusion: Most fathers were present at the births of their very preterm infants, but fewer fathers were near the mother at this time. Less than two thirds of fathers accompanied their infants to the NICU. There should be further changes to better meet the specific needs of the fathers of infants requiring care in the NICU. Continuing assessment with an online questionnaire may be useful to monitor changes over time in father's involvement in NICUs.

Error disclosure in neonatal intensive care: a multicentre, prospective, observational study.

IMPORTANCE: Surveys based on hypothetical situations suggest that health-care providers agree that disclosure of errors and adverse events to patients and families is a professional obligation but do not always disclose them. Disclosure rates and reasons for the choice have not previously been studied. OBJECTIVE: To measure the proportion of errors disclosed by neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) professionals to parents and identify motives for and barriers to disclosure. DESIGN: Prospective, observational study nested in a randomised controlled trial (Study on Preventing Adverse Events in Neonates (SEPREVEN); ClinicalTrials.gov). Event disclosure was not intended to be related to the intervention tested. SETTING: 10 NICUs in France with a 20-month follow-up, starting November 2015. PARTICIPANTS: n=1019 patients with NICU stay ≥2 days with ≥1 error. EXPOSURE: Characteristics of errors (type, severity, timing of discovery), patients and professionals, self-reported motives for disclosure and non-disclosure. MAIN OUTCOME AND MEASURES: Rate of error disclosure reported anonymously and voluntarily by physicians and nurses; perceived parental reaction to disclosure. RESULTS: Among 1822 errors concerning 1019 patients (mean gestational age: 30.8±4.5 weeks), 752 (41.3%) were disclosed. Independent risk factors for non-disclosure were nighttime discovery of error (OR 2.40; 95% CI 1.75 to 3.30), milder consequence (for moderate consequence: OR 1.85; 95% CI 0.89 to 3.86; no consequence: OR 6.49; 95% CI 2.99 to 14.11), a shorter interval between admission and error, error type and fewer beds. The most frequent reported reasons for non-disclosure were parental absence at its discovery and a perceived lack of serious consequence. CONCLUSION AND RELEVANCE: In the particular context of the SEPREVEN randomised controlled trial of NICUs, staff did not disclose the majority of errors to parents, especially in the absence of moderate consequence for the infant. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT02598609.

Implementation Outcomes and Challenges of Partnerships between Resource Parents and Parents with Sick Infants in Intensive Neonatal Care Units: A Scoping Review.

Parents with a sick child in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) usually experience stress, anxiety, and vulnerability. These precarious feelings can affect early parent-child interactions and have consequences for the child's neurodevelopment. Parents who have had a sick child in an NICU (veteran parents) can offer helpful interventions for these vulnerable families. This article is a scoping review of parental interventions used with the families of NICU infants, and an overview of French perspectives. Two independent reviewers studied the scientific literature published in English between 2001 to 2021 using Covidence software. The databases used were MEDLINE, ISI Web of Science, the Cochrane Database, and Google Scholar. Themes were identified from the articles' results using an open coding approach. The data are presented in a narrative format. Ten articles were included, and four major themes addressed: (1) description of activities, (2) recommendations, (3) impact, and (4) barriers (resulting from recruitment, training, remuneration, and organization). Activities were very diverse, and a step-by-step implementation was recommended by all authors. Peer-support interventions might be a potential resource for those anxious parents and improve their NICU experiences. These challenges are described by SOS Préma in France. This article brings together recent studies on partnership in the NICU. It is an innovative topic in neonatology with vast issues to explore.

Practical recommendations on room sizes for hospitalised newborn infants and their families based on a systematic review of the literature.

AIM: Neonatal unit design may affect the neurodevelopment of hospitalised neonates and the well-being of parents and healthcare staff (HCS). We aimed to provide recommendations regarding the minimum area required for a hospital room for a single neonate and their family. METHODS: We searched PubMed and Web of Science for relevant articles published from 1 January 2011 to 1 May 2021 by using the keywords NICU and facility design. Recommendations were developed after internal and external review by a multidisciplinary group including 15 professionals and parent representatives. RESULTS: We identified 314 studies and developed six recommendations from four eligible studies. Recommendations for room size were developed according to three perspectives: opinions of users, who emphasised the need for a spacious room; proposals of organisations by HCS, which advocated for a minimum floor area of 11.2-18 m2 in a single non-family room and 15.3-24 m2 in a single-family room; and simulation methods indicating that the minimum floor area in the neonatal unit should be 18.5-24 m2 . CONCLUSION: Units need to provide a minimum room size to allow for optimal newborn development and a better experience for parents and caregivers.

An educational programme in neonatal intensive care units (SEPREVEN): a stepped-wedge, cluster-randomised controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Patients in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) are at high risk of adverse events. The effects of medical and paramedical education programmes to reduce these have not yet been assessed. METHODS: In this multicentre, stepped-wedge, cluster-randomised controlled trial done in France, we randomly assigned 12 NICUs to three clusters of four units. Eligible neonates were inpatients in a participating unit for at least 2 days, with a postmenstrual age of 42 weeks or less on admission. Each cluster followed a 4-month multifaceted programme including education about root-cause analysis and care bundles. The primary outcome was the rate of adverse events per 1000 patient-days, measured with a retrospective trigger-tool based chart review masked to allocation of randomly selected files. Analyses used mixed-effects Poisson modelling that adjusted for time. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT02598609. FINDINGS: Between Nov 23, 2015, and Nov 2, 2017, event rates were analysed for 3454 patients of these 12 NICUs for 65 830 patient-days. The event rate per 1000 patient-days reduced significantly from the control to the intervention period (33·9 vs 22·6; incidence rate ratio 0·67; 95% CI 0·50-0·88; p=0·0048). INTERPRETATION: A multiprofessional safety-promoting programme in NICUs reduced the rate of adverse events and severe and preventable adverse events in highly vulnerable patients. This programme could significantly improve care offered to critically ill neonates. FUNDING: Solidarity and Health Ministry, France.

Current attitudes and beliefs toward perinatal care orientation before 25 weeks of gestation: The French perspective in 2020.

The survival rate of infants born before 25 weeks of gestational age in France is extremely low compared with that of many other countries: 0%, 1%, and 31% at 22, 23, and 24 weeks' in the last national cohort study. A non-optimal regionalization and variations in practice are prevalent. Some parents in social media and support groups have reported feeling lost and confused with mixed messages leading to lack of trust. These data kindled a major debate in France around perinatal management leading to an investigation exploring neonatologists' perspectives and ways to improve care. The majority (81%) of the responding neonatologists reported more active care and higher survival rates than in 2011, although others continued preferring delivery room comfort care and limited NICU treatment at or before 24 weeks. The desire to improve was an overarching theme in all the respondents' answers to open-ended questions. Barriers to active care included an absence of expertise and of benchmarking to guide optimal care, and limited resources in the NICU and during follow-up - all leading to self-fulfilling prophecies of poor prognosis. Optimization of regionalization, perinatal teamwork and parental involvement, fostering experience by creating specific perinatal centers, stimulating benchmarking, and working with policy makers to allow better long-term outcomes could enable higher survival.

Emotional responses of parents participating for the first time in caregiving for their baby in a neonatal unit.

BACKGROUND: Parents of term and preterm infants hospitalised at birth experience a stressful situation. They are considered as primary caregivers in neonatal units and are encouraged to participate in their child's care. OBJECTIVES: The aim of our study was to analyse the feelings of parents participating for the first time in caregiving for their baby admitted at birth in a neonatal unit in France and to compare the feelings reported by parents of term and preterm infants. METHODS: An online survey was created in 2014 for parents who had a baby hospitalised at birth. We analysed parents' responses to this open-ended question: "How did you feel when you participated in caregiving for your baby for the first time?" using a qualitative discourse analysis by two analysts. Themes were identified and coded. RESULTS: Between February 2014 and March 2018, 1603 parents of preterm infants and 239 parents of term infants responded to this open-ended question. Twenty-five per cent of parents expressed positive feelings exclusively (confidence, ease, joy, pride, feeling supported by healthcare professionals, by their family and feeling of being a parent), 41% expressed negative feelings exclusively (stress, fear, feeling of being judged, frustration, anger, uselessness and clumsiness) and 34% expressed mixed feelings (both positive and negative). Parents of term infants expressed less frequent feelings of stress and fear than parents of preterm infants: with a relative risk (RR) of 0.69, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.56, 0.87. Parents of term babies more frequently expressed feelings of frustration: RR 2.40 (95% CI 1.33, 4.32). CONCLUSIONS: Infant- and Family-Centred Developmental Care supportive programmes are recommended within neonatal units in order to improve the experience of parents participating in caregiving for their baby hospitalised at birth.

Study on preventing adverse events in neonates (SEPREVEN): A stepped-wedge randomised controlled trial to reduce adverse event rates in the NICU.

INTRODUCTION: Adverse events (AE) in care are recognized as a leading cause of mortality and injury in patients. Improving patients' safety is difficult to achieve. Therefore, innovative research strategies are needed to identify errors in subgroups of patients and related severity of outcomes as well as reliably measured efficiency of reproducible strategies to improve safety. This trial aims to evaluate the impact of a combined multiprofessional education program on the rate of AE in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs). METHODS AND ANALYSIS: This is a stepped-wedge cluster randomised controlled trial with 3 clusters each containing 4 units. The study time period will be 20 months. The education program will be implemented within each cluster following a random sequence with a control period, a 4-month transition period and a post-educational intervention period. Eligibility criteria: for clusters: 6 NICUs from Ile-de-France and 6 NICUs from different regions in France; for patients: in-hospital during the study period (November 23, 2015 and November 2, 2017 [inclusion start dates varying by unit]) in one of the 12 NICUs; corrected gestational age ≤42 weeks upon admission; hospitalization period >2 days; and parents informed and not opposed to the use of their newborn's data. A routine occurrence reporting of medical errors and their consequence will take place during the entire study period. The intervention will combine an education to implement a standardized root cause analysis method, creation of bundles (insertion, daily goals, maintenance bundles) to prevent catheter-associated blood-stream infection and a poster to prevent extravasation injuries. OUTCOME: We hypothesize a reduction from 60 (control) to 50 (intervention) AE/1000 patient-days. The primary outcome will be the rate of AE/1000 patient-days in the NICU. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT02598609, trial registered November 6, 2015. https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02598609. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Study approved by the regional ethic committee CPP Ile-de-France III (no 2014-A01751-46). The results will be published in peer-reviewed journals.

French neonatal society position paper stresses the importance of an early family-centred approach to discharging preterm infants from hospital.

AIM: The families of hospitalised preterm infants risk depression and post-traumatic stress and the preterm infants risk re-hospitalisation. The French neonatal society's aim was to review the literature on how the transition from hospital to home could limit these risks and to produce a position paper. METHODS: A systematic literature review was performed covering 1 January 2000 to 1 January 2018, and multidisciplinary experts examined the scientific evidence. RESULTS: We identified 939 English and French papers and 169 are quoted in the position paper. Most studies stressed the importance of early, personalised and progressive involvement of the family. Healthcare staff and families should assess discharge preparations jointly. This evaluation should assess the capacities of the newborn infant, with regard to its physiological maturity. It should also assess the family's ability to supply the medical, psychological and social assistance required before and after discharge. There should be a structured follow-up process that includes effective communication, various tools, interventions, networks, health and social professionals. CONCLUSION: Discharge preparations may improve the transition from hospital to home and the outcomes for the parents and newborn preterm infant. This early family-centred approach should be structured, coordinated and based on individual needs and circumstances.