The NICU can be a stressful environment for new mothers and fathers irrespective of
whether NICU stay was anticipated or not. Parental role alteration remains one of the
major parental stressors. Our NICU practices family centered care, with efforts to reduce
NICU associated stress by daily updates (via phone and in person/by bedside), encouraging
parent-infant skin to skin as infant's clinical state permits, allowing physical touch of
baby with hands to stimulate bonding, amongst other practices. Studies have looked at
stress as well as psychological distress in relation with parental resilience in the
NICU, but none have looked at stress level in NICU parents in relation to their infant's
clinical status at the time of assessment while adding an intervention. Our study, to the
best of our knowledge, will be the first to evaluate the impact of serial bedside video
call w/audio feature to NICU parents, permitting audio interaction with their infant,
with an interval assessment of parent's stress level.
Parents will be randomized into 2 groups. The parent/guardian designated at the time of
initial enrollment/consenting will be asked to complete the forms at subsequent
assessments and participate in the study intervention. Data collection will be at 3
points during an 8-week period. Parental assessment will be done when they are visiting
their infant. Parents will receive the following questionnaires during the 3 assessments
and Infant clinical severity score will be completed at all assessments by the research
investigator.
Assessment 1 (7-10 days of life):
Socio-demographic sheet, MSPSS, PSS-NICU
Assessment 2 (14-21 days of life):
PSS-NICU
Assessment 3 (6-8 weeks of life):
MSPSS, PSS-NICU, STAI Y-1, STAI Y-2
Socio-demographic data
Infant Clinical severity Score: This quantifies the degree of infant clinical severity at
the time of assessment for our study. This score is not intended to portray mortality or
morbidity.
Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social support (MSPSS)
Parental stressor Scale- Neonatal Intensive Care unit (PSS-NICU) 3 subtype
State- Trait-Anxiety-Inventory Form Y-1 - is a well validated form used to measure one's
anxiety state at a specific moment in time.
State- Trait-Anxiety-Inventory Form Y-2 - is a well validated tool that requires the
individual to describe how they generally feel.