Taking care of their baby at home but with nursing staff as support: The use of videoconferencing in providing neonatal support to parents of preterm infants

doi:10.1016/j.jnn.2009.01.004

Journal of Neonatal Nursing

Volume 15, Issue 2, April 2009, Pages 47-55

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnn.2009.01.004 Get rights and content

Abstract

The aim was to describe the experiences of parents of preterm infants on the use of real-time videoconferencing between their home and the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Ten couples participated in the study. After taking their infant home, parents had access, via video and sound in real-time, to the staff at the NICU. Data were collected by notes and interviews with the parent; thereafter a thematic content analysis was used to analyze the texts. The analysis revealed four categories: security provided by access to the staff; face-to-face supportive meetings; need for control over the use of videoconferencing; other possible uses of videoconferencing. The identified theme was ‘feeling strengthened by having a link between the home and the NICU’. Parents experienced videoconferencing as positive, which empowered them and gave them confidence in their new situation of being at home with their infant.

Section snippets

Background

Being a new family causes anxiety, but having to cope with a prematurely born infant makes it much more difficult (Broedsgaard and Wagner, 2005), as the transition to parenthood may be strained by the preterm birth (Rimmerman and Sheran, 2001). Family adjustment among parents of preterm infant is a time dependent process (Doucette and Pinelli, 2004). According to Whitfield (2003), parents describe their time at the NICU as the worst major life event they have experienced. Therefore, a key

Design

A qualitative approach and a thematic content analysis were chosen to achieve the aim of the study. This study is one part of a larger intervention study aiming to describe experiences on the use of videoconferencing between the NICU and parents of preterm born infants' home, before and after use, from both the parents and the paediatrics nurses perspectives. However, the present study deals only with the parents' experiences after using the videoconferencing.

The intervention

The study was conducted in

Results

The analysis revealed four categories: security provided by access to the staff; face-to-face supportive meetings; need for control over the use of videoconferencing; other possible uses of videoconferencing. The theme identified was ‘feeling strengthened by having a link between the home and the NICU’. By having this real-time link with video and sound to staff, parents felt empowered and were given support and confidence after the initial homecoming. The categories are presented in the text

Discussion

This study describes the experiences of parents of preterm infants on the use of videoconferencing between their home and the NICU as valuable, supportive and helpful upon their homecoming with their preterm born infant. Coming home with their preterm infant is a change from being at the NICU, where parents have staff access throughout their stay. However, the results in this study indicate that the videoconference system made parents feel safe by the possibility to have direct access, via

Conclusion

The present study demonstrated how parents had positive experiences on the use of videoconferences, empowering them and giving them confidence in their new situation at home with the infant. The technology provided a unique possibility of letting the parents experience the support from the staff even though they were in a remote location. According to Haux et al. (2002), it is worth bearing in mind that our society is continuously influenced by modern ICT, and health care has greatly profited

Acknowledgement

We are grateful to the parents who participated in this study and to the staff at the NICU. This study was supported by the Centre for Distance-Spanning Healthcare (CDH) at Luleå University of Technology, Sweden and the Norrbotten County Council, Sweden.

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Taking care of their baby at home but with nursing staff as support: The use of videoconferencing in providing neonatal support to parents of preterm infants

Abstract

Section snippets

Background

Design

The intervention

Results

Discussion

Conclusion

Acknowledgement

Newborn Infant Nurs. Rev.

Soc. Sci. Med.

J. Pediatr. Nurs.

J. Prof. Nurs.

Int. J. Med. Inf.

Nurs. Outlook

J. Pediatr. Health Care

J. Neonatal Nurs.

Semin. Neonatol.

Semin. Perinatol.

J. Neonatal Nurs.

Semin. Neonatol.

Content analysis

Transition of preterm infants from hospital to home

Neonatal Intensive Care

How to facilitate parents and their premature infant for the transition home

Int. Nurs. Rev.

Using qualitative analytic techniques

Community neonatal nursing work

J. Adv. Nurs.

Mothers' perceptions of the care-by-parent program prior to hospital discharge of their preterm infants

Neonatal Netw.

Types of support expected and received by mothers after their infants' discharge from the NICU

Issues Compr. Pediatr. Nurs.

The effects of family resources, coping, and strains on family adjustment 18 to 24 months after the NICU experience

Adv. Neonatal Care

‘Chatting’: an important clinical tool in facilitating mothering in neonatal nurseries

J. Adv. Nurs.

Future patients? Telehealthcare, roles and responsibilities

Health Soc. Care Community

Empowering the patient and public through information technology

Being there: an analysis of the concept of presence

Empowerment of parents in the neonatal intensive care unit by neonatal nurses

Health SA Gesondheid

Parenting the prematurely born child

Annu. Rev. Nurs. Res.

How parents cope with the experience of neonatal intensive care

Child Health Care