Comfort, benefit, and distress: An exploratory study of research experiences of bereaved parents in the neonatal intensive care unit
摘要
Understanding the research experiences of bereaved parents is necessary to advance palliative care.
ObjectiveTo evaluate levels of and factors associated with bereaved parent comfort, benefit, and distress from research participation and to qualitatively explore research experiences.
Study designExploratory analysis of survey data from parents of infants who died in a level IV NICU (2010-2020). Fisher’s exact and Chi-square tests were used to identify factors associated with parental comfort, distress, and benefit. Qualitative analyzed was performed using the constant comparative method.
Results40/146 parents (27%) responded. 83% reported being “very comfortable” or “comfortable”, 83% reported “some” to “a lot” of benefit, 26% reported “a great deal” to “a lot” of distress from participation. Goal-discordant care was significantly associated with distress. Research participation themes included “helping others”, “processing experiences” and “re-living negative experiences”.
ConclusionBereaved NICU parents simultaneously experience distress, comfort, and benefit from research participation.