Family-Centered Care Across Thai Neonatal Intensive Care Units: A National, Cross-Sectional Survey.

BACKGROUND: Implementing family-centered care (FCC) presents challenges to parental-healthcare provider partnership and collaboration in newborn care in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs). AIMS: To explore NICU nurses' perceptions of FCC (respect, collaboration, and support) during the COVID-19 pandemic and to compare these between nurses working in secondary and tertiary/higher care settings. METHODS: A multicenter, cross-sectional exploratory online survey design study was conducted to identify Thai NICU nurses' perceptions. The online survey of the Perceptions of Family-Centered Care-Staff (PFCC-S) was distributed via a Web page and professional networks between July and September 2022. RESULTS: Of the 187 survey respondents, most NICU nurses worked in the NICU for less than 16 years and were employed in tertiary care/higher care settings in southern Thailand. There was a significant difference in perceptions of support subscale between NICU nurses in secondary (mean: 3.32, SD ± 0.53) and tertiary/higher care settings (mean: 3.17, SD ± 0.46) (P < .05). CONCLUSION: Despite the challenges of the visitation restriction of COVID-19 in Thailand, nurses' perceptions of the value of FCC were maintained. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: Further research is recommended to investigate how FCC can be implemented where there is a lack of material and infrastructure resources and staff shortage.

Parent and interdisciplinary professional perceptions of family-centered care in Thai NICU: A qualitative study.

BACKGROUND: Family-centered care (FCC) has been successfully incorporated into daily practice in many neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) worldwide. However, the implementation of FCC in lower-resourced settings, such as Thailand, can be challenging and needs to be further explored. AIMS: To identify parents' and interdisciplinary professionals' perceptions of FCC and to describe the opportunities to improve FCC in a Thai NICU. DESIGN: An exploratory qualitative approach was used. METHODS: The data were collected through face-to-face, semi-structured, individual interviews based on an interview guide. This study was conducted before the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (February 2020) in a hospital in southern Thailand. Inductive thematic analysis was used to analyse interview data. RESULTS: Participants were parents (n = 9) and interdisciplinary professionals (n = 8). The results revealed four key themes: (a) Recognizing and responding to individual families' different readiness and their rights and values, (b) working in a parent-interdisciplinary partnership to provide care, (c) lacking resources and motivation and (d) understanding of care requirements and providing help/sympathy. CONCLUSIONS: The interdisciplinary professionals accepted that FCC is necessary for clinical practice, but there are some challenges in the Thai NICUs context because of the system of health care delivery. The findings highlighted that interdisciplinary professionals often viewed parents' involvement as an obstacle to providing neonatal care. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: Further research is recommended to investigate how FCC is operationalized by interdisciplinary professionals and how hospital administrators can be supported to implement the FCC approach into clinical practice in Thai NICUs.

Family-centred care change during COVID-19.

BACKGROUND: Family-centred care (FCC) is an approach to promote family and health care provider partnership. This has been incorporated into neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) worldwide. However, FCC in low resource health settings, such as Thailand, is challenging and further impacted by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). AIMS: To evaluate FCC innovations to improve respect, collaboration and support in a Thai NICU. STUDY DESIGN: A quasi-experimental study was conducted in an NICU in southern Thailand. Pre-implementation was prior to COVID-19, and parental and staff perceptions of FCC were measured via Perceptions of Family Centred Care-Parent (PFCC-P) and -Staff (PFCC-S) survey. The FCC innovations were developed by stakeholders based on the COVID-19 restrictions, pre-survey results, parents' and clinicians' interviews and integrative review, then implemented via a flowchart. Post-implementation evaluation was via repeated surveys. Comparisons were made pre-and post-implementation, with Mann-Whitney U-test statistics for parents and Wilcoxon's Rank Sum for staff. RESULTS: A total of 185 (85 pre; 100 post) parents and 20 (pre and post; paired group) health care professionals participated. Because of COVID-19, many planned interventions were unfeasible, however, other innovations achieved (e.g., structured telephone updates, information booklet revision). There was an increase in parents' perception of respect ([median] 2.50-3.50), collaboration (2.33-3.33) and support (2.60-3.60) domains and overall (2.50-3.43; p < .001; 95% CI: 2.93-3.11). Interdisciplinary professionals' perception of FCC did not significantly change pre-and post-implementation/COVID-19 pandemic for respect (3.00-2.92), collaboration (3.22-3.33), support (3.20-3.20) and overall (3.15-3.20; 95% CI: 3.10-3.25). CONCLUSION: Despite the challenges of COVID-19 restricting NICU access, the provision of FCC was maintained and even improved. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: Further research is necessary to develop FCC practice innovations associated with communication, across diverse health care systems and resources.