NICU nurses’ ambivalent attitudes in skin-to-skin care practice

This article illuminates the essence of Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) nurses’ attitudes in skin-to-skin care (SSC) practice for preterm infants and their parents. Health care providers are in a unique position to influence the dynamic between infants and parents, and SSC affects both partners...

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Main Author: Ingjerd G. Kymre
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Taylor & Francis Group 2014-02-01
Series:International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health & Well-Being
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.ijqhw.net/index.php/qhw/article/download/23297/32571
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author Ingjerd G. Kymre
author_facet Ingjerd G. Kymre
author_sort Ingjerd G. Kymre
collection DOAJ
description This article illuminates the essence of Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) nurses’ attitudes in skin-to-skin care (SSC) practice for preterm infants and their parents. Health care providers are in a unique position to influence the dynamic between infants and parents, and SSC affects both partners in the dyad. The design is descriptively phenomenological in terms of reflective lifeworld approach. Eighteen Swedish, Danish, and Norwegian nurses from NICUs offering varied possibilities and extents of SSC participated. NICU nurses’ attitudes in SSC practice are ambivalent. The nurses consider the sensory, wellness, and mutuality experiences to be primary and vital and enact SSC as much as possible. But “as much as possible” is a broad and varied concept, and their attitudes are ambivalent in terms of not always facilitating what they consider to be the optimal caring conditions. The source of NICU nurses’ ambivalent attitudes in SSC practice is a complex interplay of beliefs, norms, and evidence, which have a multidisciplinary basis. The ambivalent attitudes are, to a great extent, the result of the need to balance these multidisciplinary concerns. This needs to be acknowledged in considering SSC practice, as well as acknowledging that clinical judgments concerning optimal SSC depend on parents and infants unlimited access to each other, which NICU nurses can influence.
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spelling doaj.art-70a3323b04024fe0b6198265a36c18962022-12-22T03:06:32ZengTaylor & Francis GroupInternational Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health & Well-Being1748-26312014-02-01901810.3402/qhw.v9.2329723297NICU nurses’ ambivalent attitudes in skin-to-skin care practiceIngjerd G. Kymre0Center for Practical Knowledge and Institute for Nursing and Health, PHS, University of Nordland/UiN, Bodø, NorwayThis article illuminates the essence of Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) nurses’ attitudes in skin-to-skin care (SSC) practice for preterm infants and their parents. Health care providers are in a unique position to influence the dynamic between infants and parents, and SSC affects both partners in the dyad. The design is descriptively phenomenological in terms of reflective lifeworld approach. Eighteen Swedish, Danish, and Norwegian nurses from NICUs offering varied possibilities and extents of SSC participated. NICU nurses’ attitudes in SSC practice are ambivalent. The nurses consider the sensory, wellness, and mutuality experiences to be primary and vital and enact SSC as much as possible. But “as much as possible” is a broad and varied concept, and their attitudes are ambivalent in terms of not always facilitating what they consider to be the optimal caring conditions. The source of NICU nurses’ ambivalent attitudes in SSC practice is a complex interplay of beliefs, norms, and evidence, which have a multidisciplinary basis. The ambivalent attitudes are, to a great extent, the result of the need to balance these multidisciplinary concerns. This needs to be acknowledged in considering SSC practice, as well as acknowledging that clinical judgments concerning optimal SSC depend on parents and infants unlimited access to each other, which NICU nurses can influence.http://www.ijqhw.net/index.php/qhw/article/download/23297/32571Reflective lifeworld researchSSCKangaroo Mother CareNICU nursingparent–infant separationphenomenologydevelopmental care
spellingShingle Ingjerd G. Kymre
NICU nurses’ ambivalent attitudes in skin-to-skin care practice
International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health & Well-Being
Reflective lifeworld research
SSC
Kangaroo Mother Care
NICU nursing
parent–infant separation
phenomenology
developmental care
title NICU nurses’ ambivalent attitudes in skin-to-skin care practice
title_full NICU nurses’ ambivalent attitudes in skin-to-skin care practice
title_fullStr NICU nurses’ ambivalent attitudes in skin-to-skin care practice
title_full_unstemmed NICU nurses’ ambivalent attitudes in skin-to-skin care practice
title_short NICU nurses’ ambivalent attitudes in skin-to-skin care practice
title_sort nicu nurses ambivalent attitudes in skin to skin care practice
topic Reflective lifeworld research
SSC
Kangaroo Mother Care
NICU nursing
parent–infant separation
phenomenology
developmental care
url http://www.ijqhw.net/index.php/qhw/article/download/23297/32571
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