An early parent-child relationship is important for a child's development, both intellectually and socially. The admission of premature or ill newborns to neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) may make the establishment of the parent-child relationship challenging due to parents' anxiety and despair.~Traditionally, most healthcare professionals have mainly focused on infants and mothers, even though fathers often feel stressed, powerless, and helpless, and find it difficult to establish a father-child relationship. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of a father-friendly NICU on infants, parents and staff.~The study was conducted in 3 steps~A baseline measurement~Development and implementation of the intervention a father friendly NICU~After measurement~Different questionnaires were used:~The Parental Stressor Scale: Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (PSS:NICU)~The Nurse Parent Support Tool (NPST)~A questionnaire intended to measure nurses self-efficacy (SE).~The study was approved by the Danish Data Protection Agency (No 19/20297) and the procedures were in accordance with the Helsinki Declaration. In accordance with the Danish law, this study did not need to be reviewed by an ethics committee.
An early parent-child relationship is important for a child's development, both intellectually and socially. The admission of premature or ill newborns to neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) may make the establishment of the parent-child relationship challenging due to parents' anxiety and despair.~Traditionally, most healthcare professionals have mainly focused on infants and mothers, even though fathers often feel stressed, powerless, and helpless, and find it difficult to establish a father-child relationship. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of a father-friendly NICU on infants, parents and staff.