posted on 2018-10-08, 08:31authored byChloe Shaw, E. Suonpera, Katie Gallagher, Narendra Aladangady, Elizabeth Stokoe, Neil Marlow
Aims: To explore how often the participation of parents in their infants’ care and
professionals’ support for parents was documented in the clinical records and to determine how such participation and support were documented.
Background: Comprehensive documentation can facilitate collaboration between parents and
health care professionals, supporting family-centered care, yet little is known about how this is reflected in practice.
Design: A prospective, mixed methods approach was used to analyse the clinical records of
newborns.
Methods: The study was carried out in a large tertiary Neonatal Unit in the United Kingdom,
from 2013-2014. We analysed the clinical records of 24 critically ill newborns using content
analysis and thematic analysis, enabling us to determine the frequency of documented
support and participation as well as how these were documented.
Results: We identified four categories of support in the clinical records: emotional, spiritual, social and practical support. We also identified instances where parents were encouraged to participate in their infant’s care. Frequency differences in the documentation of support between infants facing a redirection of care decision and infants receiving active treatment were found. Two organisational themes were identified: task focused documentation and minimal documentation of parental role. These were grouped together under the global theme
professional accountability. The perspectives and experiences of parents were minimally
documented throughout
History
School
Social Sciences
Department
Communication, Media, Social and Policy Studies
Published in
Journal of Advanced Nursing
Citation
SHAW, C. ... et al., 2018. Documentation in the neonatal unit: The support given to parents and their participation in their baby’s care. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 75 (3), pp.628-639.
This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: SHAW, C. ... et al., 2018. Documentation in the neonatal unit: The support given to parents and their participation in their baby’s care. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 75 (3), pp.628-639, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/jan.13910. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions.