Maternal and Infant Nutrition & Nurture (MAINN), School of Community Health and Midwifery, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, Lancashire, United Kingdom.
School of Education, Health and Social Studies, Dalarna University, Falun, Sweden.
PLoS One. 2019 Jul 31;14(7):e0219743. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0219743. eCollection 2019.
Peer support is a widely used intervention that offers information and emotional support to parents during their infant's admission to the neonatal unit and/or post-discharge. Despite its widespread use, there are no comprehensive insights into the nature and types of neonatal-related peer support, or the training and support offered to peer supporters. We aimed to bridge these knowledge gaps via an international study into neonatal peer support provision. A mixed-methods study comprising an online survey was issued to peer support services/organisations, and follow-up interviews held with a purposive sample of survey respondents. Survey/interview questions explored the funding, types of peer support and the recruitment, training and support for peer supporters. Descriptive and thematic analysis was undertaken. Thirty-one managers/coordinators/trainers and 77 peer supporters completed the survey from 48 peer support organisations/services in 16 different countries; with 26 interviews undertaken with 27 survey respondents. We integrated survey and interview findings into five themes: 'background and infrastructure of peer support services', 'timing, location and nature of peer support', 'recruitment and suitability of peer supporters', 'training provision' and 'professional and emotional support'. Findings highlight variations in the types of peer support provided, training and development opportunities, supervisory and mentoring arrangements and the methods of recruitment and support for peer supporters; with these differences largely related to the size, funding, multidisciplinary involvement, and level of integration of peer support within healthcare pathways and contexts. Despite challenges, promising strategies were reported across the different services to inform macro (e.g. to facilitate management and leadership support), meso (e.g. to help embed peer support in practice) and micro (e.g. to improve training, supervision and support of peer supporters) recommendations to underpin the operationalisation and delivery of PS provision.
同伴支持是一种广泛使用的干预措施，可为父母在婴儿入住新生儿病房期间和/或出院后提供信息和情感支持。尽管它被广泛使用，但对于新生儿相关同伴支持的性质和类型，以及对同伴支持者的培训和支持，尚无全面的了解。我们旨在通过一项针对新生儿同伴支持服务的国际研究来弥补这些知识空白。该混合方法研究包括一项在线调查，该调查针对同伴支持服务/组织进行，并且对调查受访者进行了有针对性的访谈。调查/访谈问题探讨了资金，同伴支持的类型以及同伴支持者的招募，培训和支持。进行了描述性和主题分析。来自 16 个不同国家的 48 个同伴支持组织/服务中，有 31 名经理/协调员/培训师和 77 名同伴支持者完成了调查；对 26 名调查受访者中的 27 名进行了 26 次访谈。我们将调查和访谈结果整合为五个主题：“同伴支持服务的背景和基础架构”，“同伴支持的时间，地点和性质”，“同伴支持者的招募和适合性”，“培训提供”和“专业和情感支持”。研究结果突出了所提供的同伴支持类型，培训和发展机会，监督和指导安排以及同伴支持者的招募和支持方式的差异；这些差异主要与规模，资金，多学科参与以及同伴支持在医疗保健途径和环境中的融合程度有关。尽管存在挑战，但不同服务部门都报告了一些有前途的策略，以提供宏观（例如，促进管理和领导支持），中观（例如，帮助将同伴支持纳入实践）和微观（例如，改善培训，监督和同伴支持者的支持）建议，以支持同伴支持服务的运作和实施。
