Parents' Experiences With Infant Pain Management in the NICU

Objectives: To explore parents' experiences of pain care and their participation in their infants' pain management in the NICU and to further validate the concepts of the parental involvement in neonatal pain management model.

Design: Descriptive qualitative study.

Setting: Tertiary Level 3 NICU in an academically affiliated teaching hospital in Toronto, Canada.

Participants: A purposeful sample of 10 parents of infants in the NICU from 2019 to 2022.

Methods: We conducted one-on-one semistructured interviews with participants. We used the parental involvement in neonatal pain management framework as the conceptual model. We coded interview data using deductive thematic analysis and created inductive codes if data did not align with the conceptual model.

Results: We identified one overarching theme: Competence and Confidence of Parents. Within this overarching theme, we identified the following themes: Health Care Providers as Gatekeepers, Beliefs of Parents, Information/Support, Parent-Infant Proximity, and Stress and Anxiety. Data supported the relevance of elements in the parental involvement in neonatal pain management model.

Conclusions: Health care providers play a key role in determining when and how parents comfort their infants. In addition, the beliefs of parents, information and/or support, and their proximity to their infants affected parents' competence and confidence in providing pain management.