Do families after early postnatal discharge need new ways to communicate with the hospital? A feasibilility study

Objective: the length of the postnatal hospital stay in Denmark as well as globally has been radically reduced over the past 10-20 years and this raises the challenge of finding new ways of providing observation and support to families discharged early, that they otherwise would be provided as inpatients.

Aim: this study is to identify the nursing support needs of new parents and their infants during the first seven days post partum, by drawing on the experiences of all stakeholders' in early postnatal discharge from hospital, and thereby gaining new knowledge to investigate further whether telemedicine is a viable option in providing the required support.

Design: this article describes the first phase of a participatory design process. A qualitative approach guided the research process and the data analysis. Data were collected from participant observation, qualitative interviews with the new parents, focus groups interviews and a workshop attended by the new parents and health-care professionals.

Participants and setting: the total number of participants in this study was 37; nineteen parents and 18 health-care professionals from one hospital and three municipalities in Denmark.

Findings: the investigation findings highlighted, amongst other aspects, the importance of individualised postnatal follow-up in which families have increased access to the health-care professionals and are provided with timely information tailored to their specific needs.

Key conclusions and implications for practice: the present study underscored that the families experiencing early discharge were not provided with seamless individualised follow-up support. They requested more availability from the health-care system to respond to their concerns and questions during the postnatal period. They experienced a barrier in attempting to contact health-care professionals following hospital discharge and they asked for new ways to communicate that would eliminate that barrier and meet their needs for more individualised and timely information and guidance.