Supporting families on their journey towards a normal everyday life - facilitating partnership in an early discharge program for families with premature infants

PURPOSE: Several Danish neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) offer the possibility of an early discharge program (EDP) for families with premature infants, when the infant reaches the gestational age ≥ 34 weeks and a weight ≥ 1,500 g. The purpose of this study is to explore how the partnership with these families can be facilitated by the nurse based on the principles of the framework of family centered care (FCC).

DESIGN AND METHODS: The study was conducted as an ethnographic inquiry inspired by Spradley and based on participant observation of 12 contacts between nurse and family, one informal and three formal interviews with nurses in the EDP-unit of a Danish NICU.

RESULTS: This study illustrates how EDP-nurses facilitate a partnership with the families enrolled in EDP by using a range of complex strategies to adjust their care to the family's changing needs, while acknowledging the family's way of being. The partnership typically develops in three phases: "Settling in EDP," "Thriving in EDP," and "Leaving the EDP nest." The EDP-nurses have a clear understanding of whether a partnership is well functioning or challenging and they play a unique role by facilitating a partnership that supports the family on the journey towards a normal everyday life.

PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: The knowledge unraveled in this study may prove helpful for training future EDP-nurses in the neonatal field of FCC, when improving the quality of an existing EDP or developing a new EDP based on the principles of FCC.