NPS Family-Centered Care and Ethics Flashcards

Which approach is central to family-centered care in the NICU?

Answer: Treating parents as partners in care and decision-making

Family-centered care positions parents as essential partners in their infant's care team, promoting parental presence, education, and shared decision-making.

Kangaroo care (skin-to-skin contact) in the NICU has been shown to have which evidence-based benefit?

Answer: Improved temperature regulation, breastfeeding rates, and neurodevelopmental outcomes

Kangaroo care improves thermoregulation, promotes breastfeeding, reduces apnea episodes, enhances parent-infant bonding, and improves long-term neurodevelopmental outcomes.

When parents of a 23-week neonate refuse resuscitation, which ethical principle is the clinician primarily obligated to respect?

Answer: Autonomy

Parental autonomy — the right of parents to make medical decisions for their child — must be respected within ethical and legal boundaries, including decisions at the limits of viability.

A neonatologist believes continued intensive care for a 24-week neonate is futile. The parents disagree. What is the most appropriate next step?

Answer: Convene an ethics committee consultation to facilitate discussion

Ethics committee consultation provides a structured, multidisciplinary forum to facilitate communication, explore values, and find consensus when clinicians and families disagree about care goals.

Which developmental care practice in the NICU is designed to reduce sensory overstimulation in preterm neonates?

Answer: Clustering of care activities to allow consolidated rest periods

Clustering cares (grouping assessments, procedures, and feeding into defined periods) reduces the number of sleep interruptions and promotes neurodevelopmental recovery.

In the context of neonatal palliative care, what does the term 'comfort care' primarily involve?

Answer: Focusing care on relief of pain and discomfort while withdrawing life-sustaining interventions

Neonatal comfort care redirects the goals of treatment toward symptom relief and dignity, withdrawing or withholding life-sustaining interventions while maintaining pain management and family presence.