NICU Nurses’ Experiences of Learning to Provide Palliative Care: An Interpretive Description
Date
2023-04-17
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Abstract
Abstract
Background: More children die in the neonatal period than any other period of childhood. These infants often live their short lives in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and receive palliative care. NICU nurses who provide quality, family-centred palliative care can help alleviate family and patient suffering. Nurses have identified insufficient education as a barrier to providing palliative care in the NICU. No known studies have explored how NICU nurses learn to provide palliative care without formal educational resources. It is important to identify and assess how nurses learn to provide palliative care in the NICU. Research Aim: The purpose of this study is to describe the experiences of nurses in learning to provide palliative care in the NICU. The research questions for this study were: (a) What are NICU nurses' experiences of learning to provide neonatal palliative care?; and (b) What learning experiences do NICU nurses want to provide optimal neonatal palliative care? Methods: A qualitative study was conducted using interpretive description. Participants were purposively recruited through social media and nursing associations. Inclusion criteria were NICU nurses with one year’s experience who had provided palliative care to at least one infant. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews. Data analysis occurred inductively through data immersion, inductive coding, reflective memoing and thematic analysis. Findings: The nine participants in this study received little or no formal education in neonatal palliative care. They learned to provide neonatal palliative care largely through observation and experience. Three themes emerged from the data: meaning-making in neonatal palliative care, challenges in learning and providing neonatal palliative care, and learning to provide neonatal palliative care. Discussion: Most positive learning experiences identified in this study resulted from nurses being in the right place at the right time to observe a skilled colleague providing neonatal palliative care. A standardized curriculum on neonatal palliative care is recommended, as well as evaluating practice and knowledge outcomes in research assessing future education.
Keywords: neonatal, NICU, palliative care, nursing education
Description
Keywords
neonatal, NICU, palliative care, nursing education
Citation
St Louis, J. (2023). NICU nurses’ experiences of learning to provide palliative care: an interpretive description (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.