Promoting affective attachment at the neonatal intensive care unit: a challenge for nurses

Abstract

The study was motivated by observations of the routine at neonatal intensive care units (NICU), thoughts about the dichotomy between theory, discourse, and the practice of many nurses towards the newborns' parents. The objectives were to learn about nurses' experiences regarding neonatal care to newborns and their parents, and to understand how nurses experience the process of affective attachment between newborns hospitalized at NICUs and their parents. This study was developed according to the social phenomenology approach of Alfred Schütz. Study subjects were eight practical nurses who had worked at NICU of public and private hospitals. Categories of experience emerged from the discourses, including Human Contact. The analysis revealed that nurses see themselves as the connection between parents and children, and believe they play an important role in creating the affective attachment between parent and child.