Nursing Process Improvement

(1036) Comparing Narratives of Parents with Infants in NICU Before- and During- COVID: “All I can Say is Thank You”

Poster Presenter(s)

Gina Clarkson, PhD, APRN, NNP-BC

Associate Professor
Idaho State University
Pocatello, Idaho, United States
Disclosure: I do not have any relevant financial / non-financial relationships with any proprietary interests.

Co-Author(s)

HA

Hailey Alston, RN, BSN, DNP (s)

Clinical Nurse, Neonatal Nurse Practitioner student
University of Utah, NICU
Salt Lake City, Utah, United States
Disclosure: I do not have any relevant financial / non-financial relationships with any proprietary interests.
HW

Heather R. Walker, PhD

Social Scientist
University of Utah Health
Murray, Utah, United States
Disclosure: I do not have any relevant financial / non-financial relationships with any proprietary interests.
Belinda Chan, MD

Associate Professor
Division of Neonatology, Department of Pediatrics, University of Utah
Salt Lake City, Utah, United States
Disclosure: Chiesi (Principal Investigator) (Products/Services: surfactant)GE (Consultant) (Products/Services: ultrasound)

Use of high quality communication between providers and parents in the Newborn ICU is necessary to understand parental concerns or negative experience. In times of crisis, particularly those involving visitor restrictions to the already challenging task of parenting a baby in the NICU, parents may try to downplay feelings of negative experiences and excuse providers. In our study parents expressed gratitude, even while containing negative feelings - sometimes using gratitude to soften the blow of bad feedback. Therefore, this topic is important to understand so that providers can ensure that high quality empathic communication is maintained, even during critical times.

Learning Objectives:

Demonstrate an example of high quality empathetic communication.
List 3 reasons for the importance of empathetic communication.
List 2 ways that gratitude is important in positive psychology.