FACTORS THAT CONTRIBUTE TO PATIENT - CHILD INTERACTIONS OF PRE-TERM INFANTS IN NEONATAL INTENSIVE CARE UNITS (NICU)

Rinehimer M.¹, Zipp G.², Cahill T.³, Parasher R.³

¹Seton Hall University, Physical Therapy in Dept of Health Sciences, Pocono Pines, United States, ²Seton Hall University, South Orange, United States, ³Seton Hall University, Physical Therapy in Dept of Health Sciences, South Orange, United States

Background: The quality of caregiver infant relationship and individual care in the NICU influences brain development. (Bonnier, 2008) Parents of premature infants have decreased confidence, increased anxiety and experience anxiety when they go home. Parents having been in the NICU are going home without fulfilling his or her needs to know how to fully enjoy interacting with their infant. A lack of a published survey to explore the needs of what parents of preterm infants feel they need prior to discharge from the NICU led to this pilot study.

Purpose: • To develop a survey to help determine what parents.
• perceive they need to care for their baby at home.
• To establish content validity and Item-Reliability of the survey.

Methods: Descriptive, Exploratory study using Convenience. Sampling of parents or caregivers with infants born 32 weeks gestation or less and at least 18 years of age using a Delphi Technique with experts of 10 Parents of Infants in the NICU and 10 NICU Professionals—Nurses, Physician Assistants, Nurse Practitioners, and Physical Therapists to establish content validity and reliability.

Results: Parent Child Interaction Survey (PCI) was developed: • Content Validity was achieved after Round 3 with >80% agreement of each question needed. Total Percentage of Agreement Percent Agreement of each question was • 95.14 %. Reliability was achieved using Cronbach´s Alpha based on 4 traits. Knowledge .815 38 items Stress .719 7 items Confidence .786 13 items Parent / Child Interaction .746 5 items.

Conclusion(s): The PCI survey has been found to be a valid and reliable. Tool available to explore the perceived needs of parents of pre-term infants prior to discharge to improve parent –infant interaction.

Implications: This tool will determine the needs of parents to develop educational programs in the NICU.

Funding acknowledgements: There was no financial assistance with this project.

Topic: Paediatrics

Ethics approval: Approved by the Institutional Review Boards of Seton Hall University in South Orange, New Jersey, St. Luke’s Hospital, Bethlehem, Pa.

All authors, affiliations and abstracts have been published as submitted.