Five-year project to examine parent presence and effects on infants
The National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NIH/NICHD) has awarded a five-year, $3.2 million grant to two faculty researchers from The Ohio State University College of Nursing’s Martha S. Pitzer Center for Women, Children and Youth to study the effect of parent presence and caregiving for infants in neonatal intensive care units (NICU).
The grant will support work by Marliese Nist, PhD, RNC-NIC, and Rita Pickler, PhD, RN, FAAN, through a project entitled “Equity for Parent Presence and Participation in Caregiving in the NICU.”
Several existing studies suggest that parents from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds may face many challenges, such as obtaining accurate status updates on their child’s progress or ample visitation time. Drs. Nist and Pickler seek to improve care and outcomes for preterm infants in the NICU and discover what prevents all parents — particularly parents from diverse backgrounds and those who may experience health inequities – from spending uninterrupted time with their little ones.
“I am so honored that the NICHD has entrusted this work to us. As a former NICU nurse, I want nothing more than to see premature infants grow and thrive as part of a family,” Nist said. “If I can do anything to support parents in their roles as parents and send their babies home with the best possible outcomes, I am personally and professionally fulfilled. This work is not just a research project, but it is a calling to which I am deeply committed.”
To gather data for the study, 375 parents with premature babies in NICUs around Columbus will complete surveys throughout their babies' hospitalizations. Data will continue to be collected on the children until they are three years old. This approach will help Nist, Pickler, and their research team identify barriers and better understand how parent presence and participation affect the health and development of these infants, with the goal of developing and testing interventions to remove those barriers and improve outcomes.
“Marliese and I share a neonatal nursing background; I also began my career in the NICU, and I have been studying the care of preterm infants and their parents for over 40 years,” Pickler said. “To continue working with babies and their families to promote the best possible outcomes is very much an honor and a privilege.
Nist and Pickler will lead a collaborative effort with several co-investigators: Dr. Abigail Shoben, a biostatistician with expertise in longitudinal data analysis from The Ohio State University College of Public Health; Dr. Lisa Segre, an expert in parent well-being during NICU stays from the University of Iowa; and Dr. Leif Nelin, division chief of neonatology and an advocate for family-centered NICU care from Nationwide Children’s Hospital.
