The impact of family-centered care interventions on neonatal and parental outcomes in a Turkish hospital

Aim: This study aimed to improve nurses’ attitudes towards parental engagement and to examine the impact of implementing nursing interventions related to family-centred care on neonatal and parental outcomes in a university hospital in Turkey. Methods: A quasi-experimental, nonequivalent, and post-test research design was used. Using convenience sampling, the study was completed with 128 preterm infants and their parents, including 64 in the experimental group and 64 in the control group at a neonatal intensive care unit of a university hospital. The control group data were collected from medical records and parents before practising family-centred nursing interventions developed for the experimental group. In addition, nurses were given a four hour training session aimed to improve their attitudes towards parental participation in care, with the nurses’ attitudes measured before, immediately after, and one month after the training. The experimental group data were collected from medical records and parents after 10 nursing interventions based on family-centred care supported by managers began to be implemented by trained nurses in the neonatal intensive care unit. The Parent-Preterm Infant Characteristics Form, Maternal Attachment Inventory, Empowerment of Parents in the Intensive Care-Neonatology (EMPATHIC-N), and Parental Engagement Attitude Scale were used for the data collection. Findings: While nurses’ scores of attitudes toward parental participation obtained immediately after and one month after the training were higher than those before the training, the scores one month after were lower compared to those immediately after. The results indicated that discharge weight gain of infants in the experimental group were significantly higher than those in the control group and that there was no significant difference between the groups in length of stay at neonatal intensive care unit. The maternal attachment and satisfaction scores of the parents in the experimental group were significantly higher than those in the control group. Conclusion: Implementing family-centred nursing care interventions, developed based on unit needs and supported by managers, with trained neonatal intensive care nurses positively impacted parent-infant attachment, parent satisfaction, and infant weight gain.