• Katie Gallagher, Chloe Shaw, Narendra Aladangady, and Neil Marlow.
• UCL Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Institute for Women's Health, University College London, London, UK.
• Arch. Dis. Child. Fetal Neonatal Ed. 2018 Jul 1; 103 (4): F343-F348.

ObjectiveTo explore the experiences of parents of infants admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit towards interaction with healthcare professionals during their infants critical care.DesignSemi-structured interviews were conducted with parents of critically ill infants admitted to neonatal intensive care and prospectively enrolled in a study of communication in critical care decision making. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and uploaded into NVivo V.10 to manage and facilitate data analysis. Thematic analysis identified themes representing the data.ResultsNineteen interviews conducted with 14 families identified 4 themes: (1) initial impact of admission affecting transition into the neonatal unit; (2) impact of consistency of care, care givers and information giving; (3) impact of communication in facilitating or hindering parental autonomy, trust, parental expectations and interactions; (4) parental perception of respect and humane touches on the neonatal unit.ConclusionFactors including the context of infant admission, interprofessional consistency, humane touches of staff and the transition into the culture of the neonatal unit are important issues for parents. These issues warrant further investigation to facilitate individualised family needs, attachment between parents and their baby and the professional team.© Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2018. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

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