Currie Erin R, Roche Cathy, Christian Becky J, Bakitas Marie, Meneses Karen
University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Nursing, Birmingham, AL 35294, USA.
University of Louisville School of Nursing, Louisville, KY 40292, USA.
Appl Nurs Res. 2016 Nov;32:281-285. doi: 10.1016/j.apnr.2016.08.012. Epub 2016 Aug 31.
Understanding parental experiences following infant death in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) is a high research priority and a necessary first step to improving health services. However, recruiting bereaved parents to discuss their experiences on such an extremely sensitive topic can be challenging and research procedures must be planned carefully in order to get an adequate sample. There is little published in the literature detailing specific strategies for recruiting bereaved parents for grief research, especially strategies for contacting parents and identifying factors that might affect participation. The purpose of this paper is to describe the process of recruiting bereaved parents into a qualitative research study exploring parental NICU experiences and grief responses following infant death. We describe a successful recruitment plan that led to the enrollment of difficult to recruit participants such as fathers, and individuals representing minorities and those from lower socioeconomic (SES) groups. Bereaved parents of infants after an NICU hospitalization should continue to be recruited for research studies for their unique perspectives and valuable insights about the devastating experience of infant death. Participants in this study reported more benefits than harm and the results addressed a critical gap in the literature.
了解新生儿重症监护病房（NICU）婴儿死亡后父母的经历是一项重要的研究重点，也是改善医疗服务的必要第一步。然而，招募失去亲人的父母来讨论他们在这个极其敏感话题上的经历可能具有挑战性，并且必须精心规划研究程序以获得足够的样本。文献中很少有详细描述招募失去亲人的父母进行悲伤研究的具体策略，特别是与父母联系以及识别可能影响参与的因素的策略。本文的目的是描述招募失去亲人的父母参与一项定性研究的过程，该研究旨在探索婴儿死亡后父母在NICU的经历和悲伤反应。我们描述了一个成功的招募计划，该计划促成了难以招募的参与者的入组，如父亲，以及代表少数群体和来自社会经济地位较低（SES）群体的个人。NICU住院后婴儿的丧亲父母因其对婴儿死亡这一毁灭性经历的独特观点和宝贵见解，应继续被招募参与研究。本研究的参与者报告称益处多于害处，研究结果填补了文献中的一个关键空白。
