Educating, training, recruiting and retaining the best: Is NIDCAP ready for Generation Z?

Abstract

2023 • Developmental Observer As happens with many things we came across an article by Eckleberry-Hunt et al1 by chance, while searching the cyber-library for another topic. This article caught our attention because it reminded us of a recent NIDCAP observation during a training day. The observation was of a very preterm baby, who was six weeks old at the time. Her mother, Amina, was heavily involved in the care of baby Farah (names changed for confidentiality): over the 100+ days of Farah’s NICU stay, Amina only missed one morning ward round. She gradually took on the active parenting role so that she was doing much of her baby’s care well before discharge. The family was planning to move to another country and Amina proactively asked that a follow-up for Farah be arranged via the Neonatal Follow-Up program at their future city of residence. Amina agreed to the NIDCAP training observation and graciously gave her permission for the observation to be videoed; clips of the video can be viewed in the Snapshots section of the NASCENT NIDCAP APIB Supplement created by the Edmonton NIDCAP Training centre canada website (www. nidcapedmonton.com). The observation of Farah was done by a NIDCAP trainee and a NIDCAP Trainer (JMT), together with a video photographer (RC). A five-page NIDCAP report written in the structured format recommended for NIDCAP training was given to the mother. Some days later while talking to Amina, we discovered that although she had seemed very interested in her baby’s behavioural communication, and in the recommendations that arose from our observation, she had not had time to look at the written report. This made us question why this mother who was so involved in her baby’s care and seemed so interested in the NIDCAP observation, did not read her baby’s NIDCAP report. It also made us wonder about the value of the detailed narrative report if parents – especially parents who are with their baby in the NICU for much of the stay – will not read it. The article that then popped up about Generation Z,1 resonated with our experience and turned the NIDCAP Training Day into a novel educational opportunity to learn about this new generation of learners, ‘Generation Z’.