Abstract
(1) To explore attitudes and beliefs of neonatal nurses toward nursing care for dying neonates; (2) to estimate the influence of neonatal nurses’ personal and professional characteristics on their attitudes towards end-of life care for dying infants. A cross-sectional design was used. A questionnaire was used to collect data from 80 neonatal nurses. Research setting was four level III NICUs at four medical centers around the central region of Taiwan. Research participants were neonatal nurses who had worked for at least 1 year in one of level III NICUs and had been directly involved with the care of dying infants. Research participants were 80 neonatal nurses (response rate 100 %). Research findings identified eight barriers hindering neonatal palliative care practice. These barriers were insufficient communication due to the lack of an in-service educational program; the lack of available counseling help for neonatal clinicians; inability to express personal opinions, values and beliefs towards neonatal palliative care; insufficient staffing; the lack of unit policies/guidelines for supporting palliative care; the technological imperative; parental demands and personal beliefs about death and previous experience caring for dying infants. Further studies are needed to explore each barrier and to provide in-service neonatal palliative care educational programs that are needed to decrease these barriers.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
World Health Organization (WHO): WHO definition of palliative care in 2004. Available online at: http://www.who.int/cancer/palliative/definition/en. Accessed 19 Feb 2009.
Cartline, A., & Carter, B. (2002). Creation of a neonatal end-of-life palliative care protocol. Journal of Perinatology, 22, 184–195.
Liu, W. J., Hu, W. Y., Chiu, Y. F., et al. (2005). Factors that influence physicians in providing palliative care in rural communities in Taiwan. Supportive Care in Cancer, 13, 781–789.
Department of Health, Executive Yuan, Taiwan (R.O.C.): Neonatal mortality rate in 2007. Available online at: http://www.doh.gov.tw/CHT2006/DM/DM2_2.aspx?now_fod_list_no=10238&class_no=440&level_no=1. Accessed 01 Oct 2009.
Peng, N. H., Chen, C. H., Liu, H. L., & Lee, H. Y. (2012). To explore the conditions of dying infants in NICU in Taiwan. Journal of Critical Care, 27(107), e7–e13.
Sanchez, C. M. (2008). Ending a life in the beginning: An information analysis of pediatric end-of-life palliative care. The Journal of Undergraduate Nursing Writing, 2(1), 56–63.
Morgan, D. (2009). Caring for dying children: Assessing the needs of the pediatric palliative care nurse. Pediatric Nursing, 35(2), 86–90.
Kain, V. J. (2006). Palliative care delivery in the NICU: What barriers do neonatal nurses face? Neonatal Network, 25, 387–392.
Weigel, C., Parker, G., Fanning, L., Reyna, K., & Gasberra, D. B. (2007). Apprehension among hospital nurses providing end-of-life care. Journal of Hospice and Palliative Nursing, 9(2), 86–91.
Kian, V. J. (2007). Pilot study of an instrument to measure attitudes to palliative care practice in neonatal intensive care nursing. Collegian, 14(4), 15–19.
Kain, V. J., Gardner, G., & Yates, P. (2009). Neonatal Palliative Care Attitude Scale: Development of an instrument to measure the barriers to and facilitators of palliative care in neonatal nursing. Pediatrics, 123, e207–e213.
Wright, V., & Hilgenberg, C. (2011). Why is end-of-life care delivery sporadic? A quantitative look at the barriers to and facilitators of providing end-of-life care in the neonatal intensive care unit. Advances in Neonatal Care, 11(1), 29–36.
Rebagliato, M., Cuttini, M., Broggin, L., Berbik, I., et al. (2000). Neonatal end-of-life decision making physicians’ attitudes and relationship with self-reported practices in 10 European countries. JAMA, 284, 2451–2459.
Peng, N. H., Chen, C. H., Liu, H. L., & Lee, H. Y. (2011). Cultural customs and end-of-life in the neonatal intensive care unit in Taiwan. Journal of Transcultural Nursing. Accept at 23 Aug 2011.
Yang, S. W., Liu, C. Y., & Liau, S. Y. (2008). Intensive care unit nurse care for dying patients and their attitude to explore factors that influence. Fu-Jen journal of Medicine, 6(4), 163–173 (English abstract).
Burns, J. P., Mitchell, C., Griffith, J. L., & Truog, R. D. (2001). End-of-life care in the pediatric intensive care unit: Attitudes and practices of pediatric critical care physicians and nurses. Critical Care Medicine, 29(3), 658–664.
Davies, B., Sehring, S. A., Partridge, C., et al. (2008). Barriers to palliative care for children: Perceptions of pediatric health care providers. Pediatrics, 121, 282–288.
Tanida, N. (2000). Japanese religious organization’s view on terminal care. Journal of Asian and International Bioethics, 10, 34–37.
Chang, H. M. (2011). End-of-life care facilitators and barriers perceived by cortical care nurses in intensive care. Thesis in college of nursing, Fooyin University (English abstract).
Bradley, E. H., Cramer, L. D., Bogardus, S. T., et al. (2002). Physicians’ ratings of their knowledge, attitudes, and End-of-life-care practices. Academic Medicine, 77(4), 305–311.
Rushton, C. H., & Catlin, A. (2002). Pediatric palliative care: The time is now! PediatricNursing, 28, 57–60.
Fishbein, M., & Ajzen, I. (1975). Belief, attitude, intention and behavior: An introduction to theory and research (p. 1975). Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley.
Olthuis, G., & Dekkers, W. (2003). Medical education, palliative care and moral attitude: Some objectives and future perspectives. Medical Education, 37, 928–933.
Gale, G., & Brooks, A. (2006). Implementing a palliative care program in a newborn intensive care unit. Advances in Neonatal Care, 6(1), 37–53.
Cuttini, M., Casotto, V., de Vonderweld, U., Garel, M., Saracci, R., et al. (2009). Neonatal end-of-life decisions and bioethical perspectives. Early Human Development, 85, s21–s25.
Jacobs, H. H., Ferrell, B., & Summer, L. (2010). promoting perinatal, neonatal, and pediatric palliative care nursing education (510). Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, 39(2), 411.
Young, J. L., Horton, F. M., & Davidhizar, R. (2006). Nursing attitudes and beliefs in pain assessment and management (pp. 412–421). Nursing practice: Issues and innovations in.
Committee on Bioethics and Committee on Hospital Care. (2000). Palliative care for children. Pediatrics, 106, 351–357.
Ferrell, B. R., & Coyle, N. (2002). An overview of palliative nursing care. Lippincott’s Case Management, 7(4), 163–168.
Barnum, B. (2009). Benevolent injustice: A neonatal dilemma. Advances in Neonatal Care, 9(3), 132–136.
Docherty, S. L., Miles, M. S., & Brandon, D. (2007). Searching for “The Dying Point:” Providers’ experiences with palliative care in pediatric acute care. Pediatric Nursing, 33(4), 335–341.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Chen, CH., Huang, LC., Liu, HL. et al. To Explore the Neonatal Nurses’ Beliefs and Attitudes Towards Caring for Dying Neonates in Taiwan. Matern Child Health J 17, 1793–1801 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-012-1199-0
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-012-1199-0