Semi-qualitative study of staff attitudes to care following decision to withdraw active treatment in a neonatal intensive care unit

2007 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 133-138
Author(s):  
M Davie ◽  
A Kaiser

The management of an infant after a decision to withdraw active treatment creates dilemmas. Both lingering death and active killing are undesirable, but palliative interventions can hasten death. We investigated what staff on our neonatal unit thought were the limits of acceptable practice and why. We administered a structured interview to elucidate their views, and asked them to justify their answers. The interviews were analysed quantitatively and qualitatively. A total of 25 participants (15 nurses and 10 doctors) were recruited. 80% emphasized the importance of pain relief following withdrawal, 60% mentioned meeting parental needs at that time. 76% agreed that death can be a desired consequence of withdrawal, yet 52% felt that death should never be hastened. 96% felt that morphine is acceptable after withdrawal, and 72% would give a higher than normal dose if necessary. 56% would stop paralysis at extubation but not reverse it, while 24% would continue paralysis. 16% would consider a drug that ended life instantly in some cases. A wide variety of views emerged, but there were two main positions, a cautious majority, and a more proactive minority. Apparent contradictions within the majority position could be explained using the doctrine of double effect and the acts and omissions distinction.

2014 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ethel Cukierkorn Battikha ◽  
Maria Teresa de M. Carvalho ◽  
Benjamin Israel Kopelman

Objective: To analyze and to interpret the psychological repercussions generated by the presence of parents in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit for residents in Neonatology. Methods: Study based on the psychoanalytic theory, involving a methodological interface with qualitative surveys in Health Sciences. Twenty resident physicians in Neonatology, from five public institutions of São Paulo state, responded to a single semi-structured interview. Based on several readings of the material, achieving the core of emergent meanings that would be significant to the object of the survey, six categories were elected for analysis and interpretation: parents' staying at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and its effects on the neonatologists' professional practice; communication of the diagnosis and what parents should know; impasses between parents and doctors when the diagnosis is being communicated; doctor's identification with parents; communication of the child's death and their participation in the interview. Results: The interpretation of the categories provided an understanding of the psychic mechanisms mobilized in doctors in their relationships with the children's parents, showing that the residents experience anguish and suffering when they provide medical care and during their training process, and also that they lack psychological support to handle these feelings. Conclusions: There is a need of intervention in neonatologists training and education, which may favor the elaboration of daily experiences in the Unit, providing a less anguishing and defensive way out for young doctors, especially in their relationship with patients and parents.


2019 ◽  
Vol 28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aliniana da Silva Santos ◽  
Lidiane do Nascimento Rodrigues ◽  
Maria Solange Nogueira dos Santos ◽  
George Jó Bezerra Sousa ◽  
Maria Corina Amaral Viana ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Objective: to identify the experience of motherhood during the hospitalization period of the newborn in a neonatal intensive care unit. Method: a descriptive and exploratory research, with a qualitative approach, based on the Maternal Role Attainment Theory. A semi-structured interview was conducted in June 2018 with 23 mothers of newborns in a neonatal therapy unit of a public teaching hospital in the state of Ceará (Brazil). The method for data analysis was the Descending Hierarchical Classification based on the Interface de R pour les Analyses Multidimensionnelles de Textes et de Questionnaires software. Results: with the codings and analysis of the empirical material, it was found that mothers presented negative feelings such as fear, sadness and anguish. Consolidated feelings were based on experiences faced by these women, making it difficult to exercise the maternal role in the neonatal intensive care unit. Conclusion: data from this research signaled at the lack of maternal protagonism considered important by the theory used, so that the bond between mother and child is established in the neonatal intensive care unit.


Author(s):  
Natália Pinheiro Braga Sposito ◽  
Lisabelle Mariano Rossato ◽  
Mariana Bueno ◽  
Amélia Fumiko Kimura ◽  
Taine Costa ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Objective: to determine the frequency of pain, to verify the measures adopted for pain relief during the first seven days of hospitalization in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and to identify the type and frequency of invasive procedures to which newborns are submitted. Method: cross-sectional retrospective study. Out of the 188 hospitalizations occurred during the 12-month period, 171 were included in the study. The data were collected from the charts and the presence of pain was analyzed based on the Neonatal Infant Pain Scale and on nursing notes suggestions of pain. For statistical analysis, the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences was used, and the significance level was set at 5%. Results: there was at least one record of pain in 50.3% of the hospitalizations, according to the pain scale adopted or nursing note. The newborns underwent a mean of 6.6 invasive procedures per day. Only 32.5% of the pain records resulted in the adoption of pharmacological or non-pharmacological intervention for pain relief. Conclusion: newborns are frequently exposed to pain and the low frequency of pharmacological or non-pharmacological interventions reinforces the undertreatment of this condition.


2019 ◽  
Vol 28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vanessa Ferreira de Lima ◽  
Verônica de Azevedo Mazza

ABSTRACT Objective: to identify the information needs of the families of preterm infants hospitalized to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit on health/disease. Method: exploratory study, with a qualitative approach, performed with 33 relatives of preterm infants admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, through a semi-structured interview, recorded in audio, transcribed and analyzed with the aid of the Interface de R pour les Analyses Multidimensionnelles de Textes et de Questionnaires software. Results: two categories were identified, which are called: Reality versus expectation of obtaining information about the preterm infant; and Information on health/disease on-line: useful, positive and unattractive aspects. Conclusion: it has been found that the information needs of family members are wide, and different means are employed to satisfy them, ranging from the traditional and every day to the use of technological means to find data and used for different purposes.


10.3823/2464 ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Taysa Costa da Silva ◽  
Shirley Antas de Lima ◽  
Josefa Danielma Lopes Ferreira ◽  
Carla Lidiane Jácome de Lima ◽  
Thalys Maynnard Costa Ferreira ◽  
...  

Objective: To verify the main measures of care for the newborn in the neonatal intensive care unit. Method: This is an integrative review, in which, it is possible to identify, analyze and synthesize research results with the inclusion of experimental and non-experimental studies. A total of 133 articles were collected. After reading titles, exclusion criteria and reading resumes, 10 were left, in which the sample was composed. Results: The selected publications were placed in 3 thematic categories: The importance of knowledge in nursing care, to the internal NB in ​​NICU; Nursing evaluation and care used for pain relief in NB; Main factors and adverse events that may lead to the hospitalization of the newborn and the increase of morbidity and mortality in an NICU. Conclusion: The analysis of the aforementioned study exposes the importance and main nursing care that can be administered in newborns in a NICU, so that the reduction of neonatal mortality can be provided. Descriptors: Neonatal Intensive Care Unit; Nursing care; Newborn.


2021 ◽  
Vol 162 (48) ◽  
pp. 1931-1939

Összefoglaló. Bevezetés: A neonatalis intenzív centrumokban kezelt betegek naponta számos fájdalmas beavatkozáson eshetnek át. A kezeletlen fájdalom következményeinek ismerete ellenére, fájdalmuk csillapítása még messze nem ideális. Célkitűzés: Obszervációs tanulmányunk célja az osztályunkon kezelt koraszülötteket és beteg újszülötteket ért fájdalmas beavatkozások gyakoriságának és természetének meghatározása volt. Vizsgáltuk a procedurális fájdalom esetén alkalmazott gyógyszeres és nonfarmakológiai fájdalomcsillapítók használatát, valamint a beavatkozások számát és a fájdalomcsillapítás alkalmazását befolyásoló tényezőket. Módszerek: A vizsgálatba az osztályunkon 2019. 09. 01. és 2019. 12. 31. között kezelt betegeket vontuk be. Prospektív adatgyűjtést végeztünk a hospitalizáció első 14 napján, egy erre a célra kialakított kérdőíven, amelyet az egészségügyi személyzet valós időben töltött ki. Eredmények: Kutatásunkba 143 gyermeket tudtunk bevonni. A vizsgálati időszak alatt 43-féle fájdalmas beavatkozás történt, összesen 13 314 alkalommal, amiből 12 953 első, 361 többszöri kísérlet volt. Gyermekenként átlagosan 93,1 beavatkozást végeztünk a hospitalizáció első 2 hetében, ami átlagosan 8,2 fájdalmas procedúrát jelentett naponta és gyermekenként. Fájdalomcsillapítás összesen 4190 alkalommal, a beavatkozások 31,5%-ában történt. Ennek 55,5%-a folyamatos gyógyszeres, 40,7%-a nem gyógyszeres, 2,5%-a alkalmi gyógyszeres, 1,3%-a kombinált terápia volt. A legkisebb születési súlyú, legrövidebb gestatiós időre született és a lélegeztetett koraszülöttek szenvedték el a legtöbb fájdalmas beavatkozást. Következtetés: Betegeink nagyszámú fájdalmas beavatkozáson esnek át, és ezek nagyobb részénél nem történik fájdalomcsillapítás. A beavatkozások tervezésével, összehangolásával, a gyógyszeres és nem gyógyszeres fájdalomcsillapítás kiterjedtebb alkalmazásával jobb fájdalommenedzsment lenne elérhető. Orv Hetil. 2021; 162(48): 1931–1939. Summary. Introduction: Preterm infants and sick neonates treated in neonatal intensive care units may undergo numerous painful interventions. Despite rapidly growing knowledge about consequences of untreated pain, pain management of neonates is far from ideal. Objective: To determine the frequency and nature of painful procedures and corresponding analgesic therapies in neonates treated in a neonatal intensive care unit of a university teaching hospital in Hungary. Methods: A prospective observational study was performed between September and December 2019. We collected data of all painful procedures, pharmacological and non-pharmacological analgesic therapy performed on neonates during the first 14 days of hospitalization. For data collection, we used a questionnaire designed for this purpose, which was completed in real time by the medical staff. Results: 143 children were enrolled. 43 types of painful interventions were performed, a total of 13,314 times, of which 12,953 were the first, 361 multiple attempts. Each neonate was subjected to a mean of 93.1 interventions in the first 2 weeks of hospitalization, representing an average of 8.2 painful procedures per day per child. Pain relief was performed a total of 4190 times, in 31.5% of the interventions. Of this, 55.5% were continuous pharmacological, 40.7% non-pharmacological, 2.5% occasional drug, and 1.3% combination therapy. Ventilated neonates and preterm infants with shorter gestational age and lower birth weight had the most painful procedures. Conclusion: Patients treated in our unit undergo a large number of painful interventions, most of which are not accompanied by analgesia. Increased efforts are needed to promote our better pain management. Orv Hetil. 2021; 162(48): 1931–1939.


2019 ◽  
Vol 72 (suppl 3) ◽  
pp. 79-87
Author(s):  
Vanessa Ferreira de Lima ◽  
Verônica de Azevedo Mazza ◽  
Carmen Gracinda Silvan Scochi ◽  
Luciana Schleder Gonçalves

ABSTRACT Objective: To analyze the use of online information on health/illness by relatives of premature infants admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Method: Exploratory, qualitative study conducted at a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit from a University Hospital in the state capital of southern Brazil, with 33 relatives of hospitalized premature infants. The data were collected through a semi-structured interview and were submitted to thematic analysis, with the aid of the software Interface de R pour les Analyses Multidimensionnelles de Textes et de Questionnaires (IRAMUTEQ®). Results: From the data analysis, two thematic categories emerged: Online information on health/illness researched by relatives; and Online sources of information consulted by relatives. Final considerations: Health professionals need to consider the use of online information by relatives in the care process, adding it in their practice in relation to the informational needs presented, and stimulating spaces for dialogue about the data found.


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