Assessment of parents’ needs in neonatal intensive care units in selected District Hospital

Abstract

Introduction :In US, Before 1970, most hospitalized babies were separate from their parents. During 1970 and 80, the importance of family’s role in the children patients was recognized. The presence of parent in the NICU is very important to both parent and to the baby. Education and visiting hours must be unlimited for parents. findings from a study conducted in one urbain hospital in rwanda show that ,when a newborn is admitted in nicu, parents are very stressed and worried . these feelings will be increased by the fact that parents lack experience in such event. Aim of the study:The present study identified the most parents needs in neonatal intensive care ,determine the barriers in satisfying parents needs with a baby and also determine associated factors to parents needs whith baby in nicu at Muhima district hospital. Methodology:A descriptive quantitative and cross-sectional research design was used in this study. the entire population comprised of 92 parents who had babies hospitalised in neonatal intensive care of Muhima district hospital.Data collection was done with the aid of researcher administered and self administered questionnaires. A statistical package for social sciences (spss 21.0) was used to capture and analyze data. Descriptive statistics was used to present data and inferential statistics such as chi-square test was conducted to test the relationship between different variables of the study at 5% significant levels Results:Result of our study describe the needs of parents of babies in a NICU indicate that the most important needs for this group were assurance needs (m=3.28) and the least was comfort (m=2.69) in addition, 37% participants were of the view that they did not have information on the time of admission.results also (45.7%).A big majority of respondents represented by 90.1% agreed that caregivers were not sensitive with other pressure of their life.The research revealed that among the factors believed to affect the need of the family , a significant association with assurance need were only age of respondents . statistically significant association between the assurance need and having other children at home have been shown. Conclusion:The Rwanda nurses and midwives council (RNMU) in collaboration of health policy makers are recommended to incorporate usage of family centered care in neonatology in the continued professional development in collaboration with health facilities.