PhD Scientific Days 2022

Health Sciences (Poster discussion will take place in the Aula during the Coffee Break)

Premature and Neonatal Intensive Care in a Multidisciplinary Approach

Text of the abstract

TITLE: Premature and neonatal intensive care in a multidisciplinary approach
INTRODUCTION: With advances in technology, the survival of preterm infants has improved significantly, leading to an increasing number of legal and ethical dilemmas. In the current legislation in Hungary, the quality of life of the infant is not considered.
The EURONIC (1996/97) and HUNIC research (2015/16) studies had investigated the opinion of professionals working in Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU) for more than twenty years and how their opinion changed regarding limitations in intensive care for severely impaired newborns and the involvement of their parents in their care.
AIM: To present the research findings on parental involvement in care and decision-making and to draw conclusions from the findings to present a framework for a much-needed pilot study.
METHODS: Quantitative, full-scale sociological surveys at two time points in NICUs in Hungary, using self-completed anonymous questionnaires (N=728). Data were assessed using cross-tabular analysis and Pearson chi2 test, and multivariate serial logistic regression.
RESULTS: Parental involvement in decision-making in NICUs were considered important by the majority, and this proportion increased further at the time of the HUNIC survey. More physicians became accepting in the HUNIC research, and the proportion of nurses supporting parental involvement continued to increase. In addition, being a nurse significantly increases positive attitude. Nurses were significantly more likely to suggest that parents should have a say in certain specific decisions, just as senior nurses who were more supportive.
CONCLUSION: An increasing number of NICU professionals believe that parents, within certain limits, should be able to choose the treatment of their child or be involved in the decision making in specific clinical cases. In order to understand the issue more precisely, it is essential to carry out a gap-filling study in NICUs in Budapest and in London, where the care profile is the same but the work is in a different legal environment. This study will provide a picture of the patient’s parents psychological state, family situation, individual, social and communication challenges and the ways they cope with them in the unit.
KEYWORDS: neonatal intensive care, parental involvement, family-centred care, decision-making