Caring, chaos and the vulnerable family: Experiences in caring for newborns of drug-dependent parents
File version
Accepted Manuscript (AM)
Author(s)
Barnes, Margaret
Biggs, Herbert C
Kain, Victoria J
Griffith University Author(s)
Primary Supervisor
Other Supervisors
Editor(s)
Date
Size
File type(s)
Location
Abstract
Background: Infants exposed to intrauterine drugs present a number of challenging features with which the new mother is faced. They can be irritable, unresponsive, and unpredictable. Available treatments require specialised neonatal care for the first four to six weeks of life; a critical time for the parent-infant attachment relationship to develop. Neonatal nurses have the opportunity to promote this development and ameliorate the effect of other developmental risk factors the baby is likely to experience. Objectives: The aim of this study was to explore neonatal nurses' experiences of providing care to drug-exposed newborns and their parents throughout treatment for neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS). Design, setting and participants: This study used interpretive methods by conducting group interviews with eight neonatal nurses in each of four Special Care Nursery Units in South-East Queensland, Australia. Results: Barriers to promoting the parent-infant attachment relationship were found to be both attitudinal and organisational. These barriers were significant, and were seen to impact negatively on optimal care delivery to this vulnerable population. Conclusions: Unfortunately, the results of this study indicated that management of these babies and their parents is compromised by a range of attitudinal and organisational factors. There is a need to address these barriers to optimise care delivery and improve the way in which neonatal nurses impact on parent-infant relationships. © 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Journal Title
International Journal of Nursing Studies
Conference Title
Book Title
Edition
Volume
44
Issue
8
Thesis Type
Degree Program
School
Publisher link
Patent number
Funder(s)
Grant identifier(s)
Rights Statement
Rights Statement
© 2007 Elsevier. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, providing that the work is properly cited.
Item Access Status
Note
Access the data
Related item(s)
Subject
Nursing
Science & Technology
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
neonatal abstinence syndrome
neonatal nursing
Persistent link to this record
Citation
Fraser, JA; Barnes, M; Biggs, HC; Kain, VJ, Caring, chaos and the vulnerable family: Experiences in caring for newborns of drug-dependent parents, International Journal of Nursing Studies, 2007, 44 (8), pp. 1363-1370