Abstract
Background: Nurses working in neonatal intensivecare units (NICUs) meet a handful of professionalchallenges and are nursing ever smaller and morevulnerable infants using technological devices and in addition they have to integrate parents in thecare.
Design: A qualitative interview study with ahermeneutic-phenomenological approach.
Aims: To investigate the lived experiences ofneonatal nurses, that is, what it is like to be aneonatal nurse at the time when developmentalcare is introduced in the unit.
Setting: An 18 bed level II-III neonatal unit at a tertiaryuniversity hospital in Denmark. Developmental carewas recently introduced in the unit, and parentsspent many hours a day with their baby and stayedovernight in guestrooms at the hospital.
Method: Data were collected from seven neonatalnurses with varied experiences; they wereanalyzed and thematized following Van Manen'sphenomenological methodology.
Results: The essential theme of the phenomenonbeing a neonatal nurse is found to be ‘ balancingbetween the ideal and the possible’. Five themes(with sub-themes) further illuminate the essence. They are: ‘being attentive to the infant and themother-infant dyad’, ‘the body tells’, ‘time iseverything’, ‘working in a quiet and caring, crowdedand distressing space’, and ‘team-work - demandingor smooth and helpful’.
Conclusion: Introducing developmental care in aneonatal unit changes neonatal nurses' experiencesof caring for infants and mother-infant dyads. Themeaning of body, time, space, and relationshipsare decisive and should be included in nurses' andnurse leaders' discussion about developmental andfamily-centred neonatal care.
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Aagaard, H., Hall, E., Kronborg, H. et al. 1323 Balancing Between the Ideal and the Possible. Lived Experiences of Neonatal Nurses. Pediatr Res 68 (Suppl 1), 654 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-201011001-01323
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-201011001-01323