Parent Satisfaction With Neonatal Care: A Secondary Analysis.

Background: Understanding parent satisfaction with care is an integral part of ensuring care delivery is family-focused and responsive to family needs, preferences, and values.

Purpose: The purposes of the study were to describe parental satisfaction with neonatal care, assess differences between satisfaction scores and identify areas for care improvement.

Methods: A secondary analysis of data collected from an online survey of the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) parent experiences during the early months of the COVID-19 Pandemic in the United States was used. Parent satisfaction with NICU care was measured using the EMpowerment of PArents in THe Intensive Care (EMPATHIC) scale. Descriptive statistics described individual items, domain scores, and total score. Independent t-tests with Bonferroni correction compared this study to previously published results.

Results: 159 mothers and 5 fathers responded to the EMPATHIC scale. The overall mean and all domain scores were significantly different from a pre-pandemic sample where scores were consistently higher. Parents indicated their desire for more cultural competence, emotional support, acknowledgement, and space to discuss their experience, guidance for discharge, better medication information and quicker response to an infant's condition.

Implications for practice and research: Our study identified statistically significant differences between our sample and a pre-pandemic sample and found the absolute mean difference in 3 domain scores to be > 1, suggesting clinical significance. We were able to offer more clarity about what factors were contributing to higher or lower satisfaction scores.