Close Collaboration with Parents – Research

Below is a summary of the main findings:

Intervention and Family-Centered Care

Following the implementation of the intervention in the first NICU, nurses reported in focus group interviews a shift in their role - from active caregivers to facilitators supporting parents in infant care. This change, along with improved skills in engaging parents and providing individualized care, improved parent satisfaction and infant stability.

In eight Finnish hospitals, the Digi-FCC tool showed statistically significant improvements in nursing staff's performance in active listening, emotional support, and fostering parents' trust. Fathers noted increased quality in family-centered care, especially in shared decision-making, while mothers' already high baseline scores remained stable. In six Estonian units, parents rated active listening, individual guidance, and emotional support significantly higher on the Digi-FCC tool after the intervention. Staff reported improvements in almost all FCC items, with higher fidelity associated with greater improvements.

The intervention enhanced FCC practices across all 10 categories in the Bliss Audit tool in 8 Finnish NICUs, including active care, family support, communication, developmental care, decision-making, facilities, policies, staff training, information provision, and service improvement.

Intervention and Parent-Infant Closeness

In nine Finnish hospitals, the intervention increased parents’ presence and skin-to-skin contact. Daily parental presence rose by 99 minutes, and skin-to-skin contact increased by 24 minutes, regardless of baseline levels.

Intervention and Maternal Postnatal Depressive Symptoms

Mothers showed lower levels of postnatal depressive symptoms compared to an earlier cohort in the same unit. These benefits persist from the measurements at 4-6 months to two years post-delivery.

Intervention and Length of Stay

A national register study in Finland revealed that preterm infants in units where intervention was implemented experienced better growth, shorter hospital stays, and fewer unscheduled emergency visits.