Visita de irmãos dos recém-nascidos em unidade neonatal em um hospital universitário de Porto Alegre no Rio Grande do Sul

Abstract

The stimulus to family bonding must be initiated even before birth, without being interrupted or delayed due to hospitalization, once that, it might occur for a long period depending on the disease of the newborn. For this reason and for the creation of an early bond, the separation of the siblings, due to hospitalization, must happen softly, only minimizing the familiarity. Welcome the visiting sibling in an guided way allows the relationship not to be interrupted. The research aimed to describe the perception of the sibling in the visit to the hospitalized newborn in the context of the neonatal intermediate care in an university hospital of Porto Alegre in Rio Grande do Sul. As a goal of the study, an orientation booklet for children and parents was prepared about visiting the NICU. This is a qualitative study, performed in an intensive care unit. Six semi-structured interviews were conducted with the visiting brother or sister of the patient admitted to intermediate care beds, since that these patients are in preparation for discharge from hospital. After the transcriptions of the speeches and submitted to content analysis, four categories: visiting, physical space, caregivers and reason for hospitalization. Through the study, there was an awareness of the care team regards to the visit. It was concluded that all participants considered the experience as positive, not only to the visiting siblings as the parents and nursing team. The hospital environment does not cause fear to the participants since they compare the hospitalization of the mother (short stay) with the baby’s and do not associate prematurity and birth to the disease. Also, it was identified that it’s needed greater integration of the assistance team with the insertion of the family in the unit, in the creation of bonds and regards to basic orientation such as unit routine and hands hygiene.