Smith Olga, Karvonen Kayla L, Gonzales-Hinojosa Maria D, Lewis-Zhao Sarah, Washington Taylor, McLemore Monica R, Rogers Elizabeth E, Franck Linda S
University of California San Francisco (UCSF) Health, San Francisco, CA, USA.
Department of Pediatrics, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
J Patient Exp. 2024 Aug 14;11:23743735241272226. doi: 10.1177/23743735241272226. eCollection 2024.
Few studies have investigated parent's experiences with racism in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Our objective was to explore how parents perceive their interactions with NICU staff and if/how racism in the NICU was experienced. Parents of infants receiving care in an urban NICU completed fixed choice surveys regarding their experiences and demographics, with 6 open-ended questions to elaborate on their fixed-choice responses. Using a constant comparative method informed by Constructivist Grounded Theory, we identified 3 main themes from the comments provided by 97 respondents: Care and harm coexisting, racism often manifesting as neglectful care, and the power differential is most impactful during times of parent advocacy. Parents spoke positively regarding their experiences and also reported disparate treatment attributed to their racial/ethnic identity. Racism was experienced by inappropriate comments and apathy toward parent requests, occurring during intimate interactions between staff and parents. Descriptions of parental advocacy efforts highlighted the lack of power they held in relation to the NICU staff. We recommend strengthening the focus on equity and mitigating power imbalances in the NICU.
很少有研究调查过父母在新生儿重症监护病房（NICU）遭遇种族主义的经历。我们的目标是探讨父母如何看待他们与NICU工作人员的互动，以及他们是否经历过NICU中的种族主义，若经历过，是如何经历的。在一家城市NICU接受护理的婴儿的父母完成了关于他们的经历和人口统计学特征的固定选择调查，并回答了6个开放式问题以详细阐述他们的固定选择回答。采用基于建构主义扎根理论的持续比较法，我们从97名受访者提供的评论中确定了3个主要主题：关爱与伤害并存、种族主义常表现为疏忽护理，以及在父母维权期间权力差异影响最大。父母对他们的经历评价积极，但也报告了因他们的种族/族裔身份而受到的差别对待。种族主义表现为工作人员与父母亲密互动期间不恰当的言论以及对父母请求的冷漠。对父母维权努力的描述凸显了他们相对于NICU工作人员所缺乏的权力。我们建议加强对公平的关注并缓解NICU中的权力失衡。
