Mutual trust in infant care: the nurses and mothers experiences

Abstract

The relationship between healthcare providers and parents of infants in neonatal intensive care unit is based on trust and constitutes a core measure of family‐centred care and health. The aim of the present qualitative study was to explore mothers and nurses experiences of trust in one another around the caregiving of the hospitalised infant in intensive neonatal care unit. Focused ethnographic research study conducted through observations and in‐depth interviews with 20 mothers and 16 nurses in NICU of Tabriz (Iran) in 2017. Two main themes of ‘gradual and fragile trust of mother‐to‐nurse’ (subthemes: Primary trust‐mistrust, mother's trust to responsible nurse, mother trust Increase with skilful nurse performance, and vulnerability to trust) and ‘gradual and fragile trust of nurse‐to‐mother’ (subthemes: Nurse's initial assessment of trust to mother's readiness to participate, Development of trust to mother, and vulnerability of nurse's trust to mother) were obtained. The present study revealed that mutual trust between the nurse and the mother in the care of the infant was a gradual and progressive process that was achieved over time. Complexities around the care of a hospitalised infant influenced how fragile or vulnerable the trust became between nurse and mother. Findings from this research can be used in supporting increased maternal participation in infant care and improvement of family‐centred care in the neonatal intensive care unit.

Alberta Family Integrated Care™ and Standard Care: A Qualitative Study of Mothers’ Experiences of their Journeying to Home from the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

“…Mothers in the standard care group did not describe the same feelings of support. This perceived lack of support from healthcare providers is consistent with other studies ( Hassankhani et al, 2020 ; Kim, 2020 ; Sigurdson et al, 2020 ; Wreesmann et al, 2021 ) and may place greater responsibility on mothers to navigate on their own a longer and more circuitous journey to home. To improve the quality of care in all NICUs, future research is needed to better understand the components of AB-FICare™ that contribute to reciprocal trust and maternal feelings of support and empowerment in the care of their preterm infant.…”

Establishing a trusting nurse-immigrant mother relationship in the neonatal unit

“…Although former experiences influence whether the mothers trust the nurses, 16 our data clearly indicate that immigrant mothers in the NICU trust competent nurses who act friendly and skilfully. Feeling safe is an explicit component of experiencing trust.…”

“…If mistrust in the nurse-mother relationship arises, the mothers will need a long time to restore trust. 16 Therefore, awareness of and reflection upon phenomena such as trust, distribution of power and nonverbal language are important. Thus, the nurses were very much aware of the transactional side of trust between mother-nurse relationship.…”

“…13,15 Mothers in the NICU trust competent nurses who act friendly and skilfully, though former experiences influence their trust. 16 Feeling safe is incorporated in this trust. We argue that a person cannot trust unless he or she feels safe.…”

Experiences and contextual practices of family-centered care in Ghanaian nicus: a qualitative study of families and clinicians

“…The practice of FCC in many countries has been reported. For instance, in Asia, the main concepts adopted were support, visual information, collaboration, partnerships and mutual trust [13][14][15]. The fundamental concepts of FCC on the American continent are information sharing (education and communication), participation (parental involvement), respect and dignity and shared decision-making [16,17].…”