| The goal of this study was to investigate the information needs of parents in a neonatal intensive care unit environment (NICU), and to uncover any gaps in the information exchange between parents and health care providers as perceived by parents of NICU patients. The participants included parents and health care providers (HCPs) in a level 3 neonatal intensive care unit. The study was conducted in two phases. The first phase involved parents whose babies were in the NICU for a period of not less than three weeks. Parents completed a brief questionnaire shortly after their baby's admission to the NICU, and kept journals during the course of their baby's stay. Before discharge, parents were interviewed. Research documents were analyzed and all of the recurring themes were coded using QSR Nudist v.4 software. The themes were utilized to develop questionnaires, for HCPs and the general NICU parent population, which were completed in the second phase of the research. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)... |
