• Arthur J Engler, Regina M Cusson, Renee T Brockett, Charlene Cannon-Heinrich, Michelle A Goldberg, Margaret Gorzkowski West, and Wendy Petow.
• University of Connecticut School of Nursing, Storrs, Conn, USA.
• Am. J. Crit. Care. 2004 Nov 1;13(6):489-98.

BackgroundParents need compassionate care when an infant dies. Nurses can provide such care and possibly facilitate grieving, yet often have inadequate preparation in bereavement/end-of-life care.ObjectiveTo describe neonatal nurses' perceptions of bereavement/end-of-life care of families of critically ill and/or dying infants.MethodsA cross-sectional, descriptive, correlational mailed survey design was used. The 55-item Bereavement End-of-Life Attitudes About Care: Neonatal Nurses Scale containing 4 sections (comfort, roles, involvement, and demographics) was mailed to 240 hospitals in the United States.ResultsThe final response rate was 52% (190 completed data sets from 125 hospitals). Respondents were comfortable with many aspects of bereavement/end-of-life care. Comfort and roles scores correlated significantly with number of years as a neonatal intensive care nurse. Respondents agreed about many important aspects of their roles with patients' families, especially the importance of providing daily support to the families. Most respondents identified caring for a dying infant, the actual death of an infant, and language or cultural differences as influential factors in the level of their involvement with families.ConclusionsEducation on bereavement/end-of-life care could affect nurses' comfort with caring for families of critically ill and/or dying infants. Additional education on cultural competence would be helpful. Educators must promote the inclusion of content on bereavement/end-of-life care in nursing curricula. Finally, researchers must focus more attention on factors that promote and inhibit bereavement/end-of-life care of families of critically ill and/or dying infants.

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