Ward rounds with parents - RCT published in ADC

I just found this article an "editor's choice" in ADC, a randomized trial on parental presence on neonatal intensive care unit clinical bedside rounds. http://fn.bmj.com/content/100/3/F203.full

95% of parents and 90% of staff supported that parents attending ward rounds and the researchers concluded that:

PPCBR should be a core component of neonatal intensive care units (NICU) family centred care policy. PPCBR does not increase parents’ stress as measured by the parental stressor scale for the hospitalised infant. NICUs should develop policies allowing PPCBR but minimising the negative effect such as decreased education opportunity and confidentiality concerns.

 

We have been aiming at rounding with parents "as team members" since several years and I have very good experience myself.

Parents who often see their babies more hours than any staff can contribute with valuable observations, they become better informed, we can make plans together with parents (feeding strategies etc) and they also become more engaged with everything.

How we have solved the confidentiality: those parents in the NICU room that "wait for their turn" listen to radio through Peltor Earmuffs