Family as the Center of Care

摘要

Patient-centered care reflects a new health care paradigm and represents the core of personalized medicine. The patient/family given enough information, can make informed decisions about their care, and can personalize their treatment plans or their healthy lifestyle goals. But for the neonatal population, this concept translates to recognizing the family as an integral part of the health care team. The family must have enough information to make informed decisions and to enter into meaningful dialogues with health professionals. While family needs have been central to neonatal care guidelines for decades, we still have a long way to go with incorporating the family completely as the philosophy of patient-centered/family-centered integrative care suggests. As neonatal nurses, we recognize our tremendous responsibility in providing as much information as possible to families, recognizing when they do not understand our jargon, and understanding when they are not ready to assume an active role in the care. We are there to support them, to encourage them, and to advocate for them as they move through the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) experience to home, either with or without their baby.