College of Nursing, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, Rhode Island.
Caring Essentials Collaborative, LLC, Boston, Massachusetts.
Am J Perinatol. 2018 Oct;35(12):1159-1167. doi: 10.1055/s-0038-1641747. Epub 2018 Apr 18.
Infants cared for in a newborn intensive care unit (NICU) experience pain, parental separation, and stress that may approach toxic levels, thus are potentially traumatic. Lack of accepted clinical terminology to describe the infant experience may result in under appreciation of NICU hospitalization on infant and family outcomes. This study explored NICU clinician perceptions of the infant experience and how the terms trauma/traumatic would impact their clinical roles and practices.
Semistructured focus group interviews and thematic analysis were used to describe professionals' perceptions of the infant's experience and terminology. Focus groups were organized by professional role, including NICU leadership, physicians, nurses, and ancillary providers.
Six themes emerged from the qualitative analysis: at our mercy, trauma defined and redefined, and now you have broken them too, perceptions of NICU experience change over time, trauma in the NICU: whose trauma is it, and not knowing the infant and family experience.
While recognizing potentially toxic infant stress levels, clinicians are reluctant to describe the NICU infant experience as traumatic. Hesitations relate to clinicians' personal concerns that they may be seen as agents of trauma and the impact for families if the NICU experience was described as traumatic by clinicians.
在新生儿重症监护病房（NICU）接受护理的婴儿会经历疼痛、与父母分离和压力，这些可能接近毒性水平，因此具有潜在的创伤性。缺乏被广泛接受的临床术语来描述婴儿的体验，可能导致对 NICU 住院对婴儿和家庭结果的重视不足。本研究探讨了 NICU 临床医生对婴儿体验的看法，以及“创伤/创伤性”术语将如何影响他们的临床角色和实践。
使用半结构式焦点小组访谈和主题分析来描述专业人员对婴儿体验和术语的看法。焦点小组按专业角色组织，包括 NICU 领导、医生、护士和辅助人员。
从定性分析中出现了六个主题：任人摆布、创伤的定义和重新定义、现在你也把他们弄碎了、对 NICU 体验的看法随时间而变化、NICU 中的创伤：是他们的创伤、不了解婴儿和家庭的体验。
尽管认识到婴儿可能承受着潜在的毒性压力水平，但临床医生不愿将 NICU 婴儿的体验描述为创伤性。他们的犹豫与他们个人的担忧有关，即他们可能被视为创伤的代理人，以及如果临床医生将 NICU 体验描述为创伤性，对家庭的影响。
