Factors influencing neonatal intensive care unit nurses' parent partnership development

Abstract

Background: Neonatal nurses play an important role in the development of effective partnerships, as they have more consistent interactions with the patients&apos; parents and can encourage parental involvement. This study aimed to identify factors influencing neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) nurses&apos; development of partnerships with parents of high-risk infants in South Korea based on King&apos;s interacting systems theory.Methods: We collected data utilizing a structured questionnaire, which included the following variables: devel-opmental supportive nursing competency, empowerment, emotional intelligence, patient-centered communica-tion skills, interpersonal competence, nursing work environment, and nurse-parent partnership. The participants were 140 pediatric nurses with at least one year of NICU experience in South Korea. We used SPSS/WIN 26.0 to analyze the data.Findings: Of the factors evaluated, empowerment (13 = 0.35, p < 0.001), patient-centered communication skills (13 = 0.25, p < 0.01), interpersonal competence (13 = -0.27, p = 0.001), emotional intelligence (13 = 0.25, p = 0.005), age (13 = -0.15, p < 0.01), and gender (13 = 0.12, p = 0.03) explained 62.4% of the total variance of the nurse-parent partnership. Our results identify the factors affecting NICU nurses&apos; development of partnerships with parents of high-risk infants.Implications for practice: Strategies and efforts to enhance the nurse-parent relationship must consider improving nurse empowerment, intelligence, and interpersonal factors.(c) 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.